ABSTRACT
Amid the flurry of activity and expectations in the aftermath of the cease-fire in the Gulf War, this chapter will examine more closely the attitudes of the Arab states in the Gulf (those states making up the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) since May 1981) towards their western neighbour, the Islamic Republic of Iran. It will be argued that a number of limitations on the foreign policies of these six states steer them naturally in an accommodating direction; that the initial developments of the Iranian revolution, and the resulting Iraq-Iran War, introduced a perceived level of threat temporarily high to push these political attitudes off course; and that the end of the war, and growing evidence of Iranian goodwill towards these states, will eventually lead to a restoration of the 'natural' pattern.
