ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the origins and dynamics of the GCC’s strategic concerns in its relationships with Iran. It posits three overarching strategic constants. First, Tehran, unlike the six GCC members, governs a country that is Iranian, not Arab. Second, the mother tongue of millions of Iranians is Farsi, not Arabic. Third, the one regional organization to which all of the GCC countries have longest belonged and which constitutes their single largest association with fellow Arabs, the League of Arab States, is one in which, by definition, Iran is not a member.
