Flash floods and diplomatic links
Dr Reza Ardakanian, Director of Iran’s RCUWM, said the number of deaths due to floods globally had been rising. He emphasised that increasing urbanisation and land development in flood prone areas had significantly raised the risk of flash floods in recent decades.
Abdullah bin Nasser Al Bakri, Under-Secretary for Water Resources Affairs at MRMEWR, referred to “statistics which show that between 1991 and 2000 more than 655,000 people died in 2,557 natural disasters of which 90 per cent were water related. Virtually all of the victims, 97 per cent, were from developing countries.”
Flash floods in Oman are some of the most powerful in the world. The Sultanate has built a series of recharge dams in major wadis both north and south of the Hajar mountains as well as south of the Jabal Qara in Dhofar, in a bid both to dampen the impact of flood flows, and to still the water sufficiently so that it can percolate into groundwater rather than rush to the sea.
As I recall, the jury was still out on whether these dams are truly cost-effective, given the expense of construction compared with the value derived from the quantity of the water that they might impound, to agriculture and the economy downstream. Nevertheless, these barriers, provided that they are adequately maintained, can prevent a destructive rush of flood waters to urban areas below the dams.
Amongst the dignitaries attending the workshop was the Iranian Energy Minister and chairman of RCUWM, Parviz Fatah.
Mr Fateh and his delegation made good use of their time in Muscat. The Iranian FM not only held talks with Sheikh Abdullah bin Salim Al Rowas, minister of Regional Municipalities, Environment and Water Resources offering to help Oman build “various infrastructure projects [such] as construction of dams, power plants, irrigation systems and roads” but also met His Highness Sayyid Haitham bin Tariq Al Said, minister of national heritage and culture when he conveyed a verbal message from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Sultan Qaboos bin Said al-Said.
Buried in an item on the official talks between Mr Fateh and HH Sayyid Haitham was almost a throwaway sentence to the effect that Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, Oman’s minister responsible for foreign affairs, received the deputy foreign minister of Iran, Mohammad-Reza Baqeri, on 4th September.
The Iranian media was more forthcoming on the subject of the meeting citing Alawi as saying that, “any illogical action against Iran can cause the whole region to face with a new crisis.” They reported Iran’s embassy in Muscat as saying that Alawi stressed that the only way out of the current situation was mutual constructive dialogue. He went on to emphasize the need to maintain stability and security in the Gulf region, Iran’s constructive role in this concern, and that the countries of the Gulf region had to safeguard its security.
It’s not obvious from this whether Alawi cautioned the Iranian minister on measures that the GCC might take in this regard, but Baqeri was said to have “explained Iran's stance on its peaceful nuclear energy and expressed the country's intention to use such energy.” Alawi was said to have “emphasized Iran's right to use peaceful nuclear energy.”
Back in June, Sultan Qaboos bin Said also “expressed hope that Iran’s nuclear issue would be resolved through diplomacy.”
Note that these statements never, or rarely, seem to appear in the Omani English-language press, which can obscure interpretation of Omani foreign policy, particularly as reporting in the Iranian media is likely to be substantially different from reporting in the domestic media.
With regard to the responsibility of Gulf countries to safeguard their own security, Bahrain’s Gulf Daily News has formally announced today that Bahrain has ‘launched a "pre-emptive" campaign to halt nuclear proliferation in the region.’ by holding a two-day conference under the auspices of the Interior Ministry and the London-based Gulf Centre for Strategic Studies.
Last December, Middle East Newsline asserted that the AGCC had asked Iran to move its reactor at Bushehr closer to Tehran. So Mr Parviz Fateh’s announcement in March this year that Iran would build a second nuclear reactor at Bushehr, cannot have been altogether welcome. In fact, Middle East Newsline released news of the Bahraini initiative last month, when it reported that the “Bahrain-based Marine Emergency Mutual Aid Center [MEMAC] had headed an effort to draft responses to a leak from Iran's nuclear reactor at Bushehr. They said the center has established a task force that would include representatives from all six GCC states as well as Iran.”
At any rate, Mr Al Alawi has now departed for Saudi Arabia to attend the100th session of the Ministerial Council of the AGCC foreign ministers, where, appropriately briefed by the Iranian deputy FM, he and the other delegates will discuss the present stalemate over Iran’s nuclear ambitions as well as the continuing travails of Lebanon and Palestine. It seems that Mr Baqeri had also stressed the need to help the Lebanese rebuild their own country.
Before he left, the Omani foreign minister also received a written message from Yemen’s foreign minister. Oman Observer, 5th September 2006. Yemen does not belong to the AGCC, but at least Omani channels might provide a route for its views.
