THE BOOK REVIEW

THE INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS OF THE PERSIAN GULF

WRITTEN by f. gregory gause III

From left, interpretor Sayeda Kusha, Mohammad Ali Abrahi Vice President in President Khatamis Government, Harald J. Dahle.

By Harald J. Dahle

F. Gregory Gause, III is the John H. Lindsey '44 Chair, professor of international affairs and head of the International Affairs Department at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University.

He also is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Doha Center. He is the author of three books and numerous articles on the politics of the Middle East, with a partic- ular focus on the Arabian Peninsula and the Persian Gulf. Gause, below.

Gause was previously on the faculties of the University of Vermont, 1995-2014, and the Columbia University from 1987-1995, and was Fellow for Arab and Islamic Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York (1993-1994). Below, Gause speaks at the Middle East Institute, 2013 Annual Conference Agenda. During the 2009-10 academic year he was Kuwait Foundation Visiting Professor of International Affairs at the Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. In spring 2009 he was a Fulbright Scholar at the American University in Kuwait. In spring 2010 he was a research fellow at the King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

The picture bellow shows from the left, Mr. Reza Shaeri from the Bonyad Machine (in the MJF energy group of companies) and Mr. Harald Dahle to the right holding up his Grand consept for the Vision of Iran Dialogue filmed interviews.

The picture was taken in April 2002 on the (Iranian) island of Kish, at the University of Kish during a seminar arranged by Irans Deaprtment of Free Trade Industrial Zones with it's Director Hossein Nassiri, advisor to the President.

To the left is the book cover showing statues of Iraqi military pointing their finger accusingly towards Iran. "The International Relations of the Persian Gulf", written by distinguished professor F. Gregory Gause, III head of the International Affairs Depart-ment at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, Texas A&M University, is a book that will appeal to both laymen as well as scholars.

It will appeal to the layman because it is well written and contains a lot of facts and it will be read by scholars, be-cause what the book reveals is only ten percent of the huge undisclosed "iceberg of knowledge" that is needed to create such a brilliant gem of wisdom. The picture below shows the Iranian revolution in full swing; Khomeini is cheered by the crowd in Tehran.

Professor Gause takes the reader on a guided tour where he ex- plains the Persian Gulf as a se- curity region; he continues to broaden the picture by explaining the emergence of the Gulf regional system from 1971-1978 ;the Iranian Revolution and the Iraq-Iran war. The reader will get detailed insight into the Gulf War and the foll-owing years, the impact of 9/11 and the Iraq War as well as thoughts about the future of the Persian Gulf. Professor Gause sums up his book by explaining American de-cision making with regards to the Iraq War and concludes with some "scratches on the surface" about war and alliances in the Persian Gulf. The book's title,

"The International Relations of the Persian Gulf" seems to reveal that the author has knowingly chosen to emphasize the historic correct labeling of the area. Historically the Gulf is called the Persian Gulf, but as seen from the Arab side of the Gulf today it is always named the Arabian Gulf. Picture to the left, King Salman, Saudi Royal.

A minor detail perhaps, but one that brings together two com- pletely different point of views with regards to this particular geographical and political area. The Gulf, that is all the water from Iraq in the North to the Oman Sea in the South, means different things to different people.

Point of view and perspective are two guide-lines when reading this book. Un- doubtedly being one of the sharpest written and thematically condensed literary works on the subject today, from a writer that I understand has also traveled extensively in the Gulf-area, the reader ought to bear in mind the revealing words of the cousin and son-in-law of the Islamic Prophet Muhammad, Ali Ibn-Abu-Talib, below.

He was the fourth Caliph of the Muslims: "He who has thousand friends has not a friend to spare." Ali ruled over the Rashidun Caliphate from 656AD to 661 AD. Anyone can look up in Google and see for himself how successfull that "friendship based" Caliphate was. The Caliphat is seen below.

Am I implying something here? Yes, in fact there has been Empires who on several times in the history have understood more about how to "govern" the Gulf area than what modern-day politicians have. The Ancient, Persian Sassanian culture, for instance, which lasted from 224BC till 636AD, covered both sides of the Gulf of what is today Oman, United Arabic Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Syria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Pakistan and a portion of Western India. Not to forget the birth of Islam 500AD. It stretched through Egypt, Libya and Algeria to Spain. Below, the ancient Sassanian empire.

Although our times are the most technical advanced in the history of mankind, our reasoning can sometimes be questioned; was it right to go to war on Iraq on to- tally falsified premises? Is it right and proper that Iran might very well suffer the same fate? And what country will be next in line? Shouldn't the United States start to make more friends in the region, including Iran, or will war-mongering remain as the highest expression of the Western Culture? Professor Gause is a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar. Iran-Qatar relations refer to the bilateral relations between the Islamic Republic of Iran and the State of Qatar.

Iran has an embassy in Doha while Qatar has an embassy in Tehran. Relations between the two countries have been soured after Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran following the January 2016 attack on the Saudi diplomatic mission in Tehran. Qatar and Iran have close ties. Both are members of OPEC, the Non-Aligned Movement and the Organization of Islamic Conference. But Tehran’s concession to Qatar is not infinite. Tehran watched as Qatar joined forces with NATO in toppling the Muammar Qadhafi regime in Libya.

Iran was plainly unsettled by this new Western-Arab model for political-military intervention, in which Qatar played a prominent and enthusiastic role, but its criticism of Doha remained largely subtle. The simple reason for Iran holding back at that moment was Libya’s relative irrelevance to Tehran. Qadhafi’s rap- prochement with the West since 2003 had created great distance between Tehran and Tripoli, and Iran had little to lose with Qadhafi’s departure. Bellow, Qatars Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani meets with Irans Ayatollah Ali Khamanei in 2009.

Unlike fellow GCC member states Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Qatar generally refrains from criticizing Iran’s domestic and foreign activities. Qatar has also held several high-level meetings with Iranian officials to discuss security and economic agreements. The two countries have a close economic relationship, particularly in the oil and gas industries. A big portion of Qatar's Oil comes from a field that is related to Iran. They held joint ownership of the largest independent gas reservoir’s in the world, named "the North field" on the Qatar side, and "the South Pars field" on the Iranian side.

Qatar has 13% of the world’s total proven gas reserves. Qatar is producing 650 million cubic meters of gas per day from its section of the field, and Iran is producing 430 million cubic meters of gas from the field. In addition to ties in the oil and natural gas arena, Iran and Qatar also cooperate in the shipping sector. The Iranian community in Qatar, although large, is well integrated and has not posed a threat to the Iranian government. It accounts for some 30,000 people of the Iranian diaspora worldwide.

The book surprisingly enough does not concern itself with good or bad, right or wrong, moral or immoral, lawful or not lawful. It is nowhere written that an historian cannot have an opinion about these subjects. The U.S. Military operated Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and the scandal that followed exposes a darker, dehumanizing side within the military system. I therefore view the sanitized absence and lack of initiative from author Gregory Gause to address at least some of these central issues as the book's most serious and weakest, structural point!

Although being an "academically correct" presentation, (no doubt about that) one tend to ask oneself during the reading of the book, where the author's empathy and humanistic bearing lies? It is the p e o p l e of the Middle East that we are interested in. And as such, one should avoid simply "theorizing some of them away" in an academic cloud of "politically correct" hybris. The picture bellow shows the United States Army abuse convictions in the Iraqi "Abu Graib" prison abuse scandal ordered by date.

The mistreatment of prisoners of war at Abu Graib was clearly in violation of "the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, U.N.T.S. 135" (entered into force October 21 1959.)

To start with, let us look at Article 3, section a: "Each party of the conflict shall be bound to apply, as minimum, the following provisions: (Refrain from) violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture." Section c: "Outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment."

Article 12: "Prisoners of War are in the hands of the enemy Power, but not of the individuals or military units who have captured them. Irrespective of the individual responsibilities that may exist, the Detaining Power is responsible for the treatment given to them."

Article 13: "Prisoners of war must at all times be humanly treated. Any unlawful act or omisssion by the Detaining Power causing death or seriously endangering the health of a prisoner of war in its custody is prohibited, and will be regarded as a serious breach of the present Convention. In particular no prisoner of war may be subject to physical mutilation, or to medical or scientific experiment of any kind (...) Measures of reprisal against prisoners of war is prohibited."

The picture bellow to the right shows US military, private first class, Lynndie R. England in the process of dehumanizing one of the Abu Graib prisoner of war, while another prisoner, left, is wired to electrical current making a grotesque pose!

Many people today, this writer included, are of the opinion that the United States should, instead of criticizing some countries all the time and punish them with ever-lasting sanctions, look into its own, domestic problems first! In 1961 Erich Fromm, the German Jewish social psychologist who lived and worked as a psychologist, philo-sopher and writer in Mexico and in the United Sates, and later in his life in Locarno, Switzerland, published his thesis, "May man Prevail?

It is an Inquiry into the facts and fictions of Foreign Policy" in which he analyzed the Cold War. Fromm noted that "both countries, the United Sates and the Soviet Union, used the same projections to experience the other as an enemy and arguing for an end to this dangerous confrontation.

Picture to the left shows Erich Fromm in 1971 working on a manuscript in his apartement in Locarno, Switzerland. Picture bellow shows American and Russian tanks barrel-to-barrel in Friedrichstrasse, west Berlin in East Germany between 4-9 June of November 1961. A potential very dangerous situation.

Which is in many ways analog to the situation in the Gulf region of today, and the ongoing escalating confrontation between NATO and Russia over Ukraine.

To be quite honest, I had expec- ted from a man the caliber of professor Gregory Gause to have included at least some of the same thoughts in his othervice excellent book. Also I would have prefered to read a bit more "temperament" towards the end. The book is well written, but academically "dry" and somewhat "lifeless". A much stronger emphasis on ethnic "values" would be desirable, and also open up a chapter dedicated to creating "dialog and common ground" in the area would cap the theme like a roof on a house.

Bellow we can see Iran's foreign Minister in Mamoud Amehdinejads Governement, Manoucher Mottaki, whom I had talks with in Oslo in 2007, with Syria's President Bashar Hafez al-Assad.

A sharper search-light from Gregory Gausse part on "the international responsibility for" and pointing out a "call to action", to paraphrase President Barack Obama's Nobel lecture in Oslo in 2009 would have been desirable.

Understandably, there is a limit to how much material the author and the publisher deem relevant to put between two covers. Distinguished Professor Gregory Gaus's five star book, "The International Relations of the Persian Gulf", spight it's flaws already mentioned, is highly recommendable reading.

The book can be found on Amazon.com

HARALD J. DAHLE IN IRAN. Bellow, NIOC Director General for all Seismic activities in the Persian Gulf Iran, and head of all Exploration Blocks to foreign investors, His Excellency Mohammad Mohaddes, together with Harald Dahle after an hour filmed interview in NIOC's HQ in Terhran, May 19 2002.

Dahle left Tehran for Dubai just hours after this meeting took place. Picture bellow shows Mohaddes and Dahle in Mohaddes' office NIOC at the conclusion of the meeting. Mohaddes, "We are opening up new search blocks in the Persian Gulf for foreign oil companies who would like to drill here." This information was later conveyed to journalist Saifur Rahman in the news- paper "Gulf News" in Dubai when Dahle arived there. "Petronews" is the news arm of Dahles information business.

Picture bellow: The last meeting on Minister level between Norway and the Islamic Republic of Iran. On the right side is seen, #1 from right Mr. S A Talebian Director General, NIOC Protocol Department, #2 from right, NIOC spokesperson in English, #3 from right, HE Bijan Namdahr Zangeneh Minister of Oil, #4 from right, HE Nogh- rehkar Shirazi, Iran's Ambassador to Oslo (2000-2004). Photo (C)2003 Harald Dahle. All rights reserved.

The Book Reviewer Harald Dahle is a Norwegian citizen who spent six consecutive years in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Dubai, followd up by another forteen years study on the Iranian subject. Dahle has created an extensive library from his time in Iran and on the Iranian culture, energy and politics. The regime friendly newspaper "Iran Daily" gave the front page to "Norway's Intention to Make Big Investments in Iran." Photo (2002) Harald Dahle. All Rights Reserved.

The writer of this review was employed by Associated Press AP wire service Oslo Buerau and the Norwegian Telegram Bureau NTB, Norways main foreign and domestic news source at the time. He wrote for Norway's largest newspaper Aften-posten from Rome, Italy. In the early 1970'ies Dahle joined International Business Machines IBM.

He continued to work for Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) which is an American oil company with operations in the United States as well as in Indonesia, the North Sea, and the South China Sea. From 1983 and onwards the writer has his own company working as consultant to mainly large energy companies. Dahle started his work in the Persian Gulf on January 1998 and finnished in June 2003. Bellow, his Iranian identity card made out by Islamic Guidance Center in Tehran, for Harald Jan Dahle.

Below, meeting with Seyyed Hussein Adeli Ph.D. in the Foreign Department Tehran, on May 5 2002. At the time Dr. Adeli was Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs. All new economic developments from foreign companies had to pass his desk. Harald Dahle met with Dr. Adeli for a filmed interview and a second time in June the following year, which was the last year Norway's middle sized oil company Statoil was present in Iran and the last minister meeting between the two sides, Iran and Norway was held. Dr. Adeli was the Governor of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Hashemi Rafsanjanis Government. Bellow, the logo of the Foreign Department in Tehran.

Harald Dahle spent six consecutive years, from 1998-2003 in the Persian Gulf creating dialog and common ground on the highest level with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Peoples Republic of China and Norway on behalf of the three-national consortium mapping the entire seabed of the Gulf on the Iranian side.

The project was called Persian Carpet 2000 (PC2000) and stretched from north of the Persian Gulf from the sea border with Iraq, all the way to the Oman Sea. At the time it was the world's largest 2D seismic project. Creating Dialogue and Common ground was the main objective for Dahle during his time in Iran, but also documenting the entire seismic project of six partcipating seismic vessels.

Picture left shows Harald Dahle at the French oil giant TOTAL's supply base on the Kish island (Iran) interviewing TOTALS's spokesperson Philippe Maguin. (Framegrab from video.) In the beginning, from 1998 and onwards, Dahle spent time on the Iranian island of Kish, some 40 minuets by plane from Dubai. Dahle took part in two seminars held at the University of Kish, and met with Diretor General for Irans Free Trade Zones, Hossein Nassiri, whom he later met with again in Tehran. Picture bellow shows Dahle with Director General of Petropars Ltd. A. Turkan in his office. Photo (C)2002 Harald Dahle. All rights reserved.

The meeting took place just three days before Turkan was to go to Oslo with the purpose to sign a contract with Norway's medium sized oil company Statoil, regarding the South Pars Gas Field Phase 6, 7 and 8. Harald Dahle meets with Turkan at Petropars LTD Headquarter in Tehran. Dahle worked in Tehran and traveled by car from the refinery city Abadan to the port town of Bandar-e Imam Khomeini, further on to Mah-Shahr (Moon city) in the Khuzestan province.

He continued by car to the more than 3000 year old town of Hendyjan near the coast. Picture bellow shows His Excellency Einar Steensnes, Minister of Oil and Energy Norway receive a DVD with filmed interviews made by Harald Dahle in Iran - in Steensnes' office in Oslo, August 2003.

Further bellow, HE Einar Steensnes Minister of Petroleum Norway and HE Bijan Namdahr Zangeneh, Minister of Oil, Iran together in NIOC's Executive 15th Floor - the last meeting on Minister level between the two parties. #1 front left row is HE Einar Steensnes Minister of Oil and Energy Norway. Behind Steensnes is #2 Mr. Amiri, bodyguard to HE Bijan Namdahr Zanganeh. Mr. Zanganeh is seen as #1 in the front right row. Behind #2 left row Mr. Amiri, is HE Noghrekahr Shirzi (with glasses) Iran's Ambassador to Oslo, and the linchpin in the Norway-Iran negotiations. Picture bellow (C)2003 Harald Dahle, all rights reserved.

From Hendyjan, Dahle went by a fast, small boat throught the marshes and furter on out to the Gulf to the Chinese mothership Bin- Hai 504, belonging to Bureau of Geophysical Prospecting, BGP, a Chinese, seismic company with direct ties to China National Petroleum Comany, CNPC. In 2000 Dahle met with represen- tatives of BGP in Oslo. Dahle concluded his overland travel in Busher, som 400Km from Hendyjan, also at the coast.

In Tehran Dahle met with Director General of STATOIL, Mr. Harald Finnvik on several occasions. On January 17 2000 Dahle flew from Busher to Dubai, the second base in the seismic project with it's huge deep water Jebel Ali Port. Picture bellow, to the left Harald Finnvik, Statoils General Manager in Iran, who did a great job towards the Iranians and was highly spoken of by Dr. Hossein Adeli, then acting Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs in the Foreign Department in Tehran. Finnvik was very well liked among high-level Iranian contacts, such as Dr. Hossein Adeli as well as Deputy Minister of Oil and President of the National Iranian Oil Company, NIOC, His Excellency Mehdi Mirmoezi. Photo (C) 2003 Harald Dahle.

Dubai was also one of two operational centers, the other one being Tehran. The neighboring UAE state Sharjah also played an important role in the project. The writer stayed on board, for shorter or longer period of time, the three Chinese, two Norweg- ian and one Iranian vessel, thus monitoring progress of deep water seismic shooting, shallow water seismic shooting and shooting in the Transition Zone One (TZ-1) directly on the beach at Hendyjan. Bellow the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London where all of our seimic information from the Persian Gulf was processed.

Bellow, framegrab of computer screen showing seismic lines from the Persian Carpet 2000 project at the Imperial College, Department of Earth Science and Engineering, London. This picture was taken in the demonstation room at the Imperial College. (C)2002 Harald Dahle.

With respect to the quality of the seismic data, the project was a huge success, which after test processing on board the Chinese mother ship Bin Hai 504, would be further finalized in the CRAY number cruncher at the Imperial College London were clients like French TOTAL, Brazilian Petrobras and Italian ENIT would come and view the data as maps on computer screens. The seismic data was then sold to oil companies in packages. They in turn, would need the maps if they were to drill on the Iranian side of the Persian Gulf after Iran had released new "search blocks". As Mohahaddes at NIOC said he would do.

To the left is Harald Dahle with His Excellency Mehdi Mirmoezi, Deputy Minister of Oil and President of the National Iranian Oil Company, NIOC. The meeting took place on May 19 2002. In the meeting with Mirmoezi, the President talked about the relationship with STATOIL as well as outlining the future needs of the National Iranian Oil Com-pany, NIOC, such as upgrading of the aging petroleum refineries and infrastructure in general. The large works at Assaluyeh where of special interest as was the South Pars Gas Field, one which Iran chares with Qatar. The one hour long meeting with HE Mehdi Mirmoezi was filmed.

The Mustazafan Organization of the Islamic Revolusion, MJF, has major interests in heavy industry, dam building, social work, trade and hotels among others. On De-cember 27, 1979, the Pahlavi Foundation terminated Hyatt International's management contracts for the three hotels, using the departure of the foreign staff as grounds, resulting in a lengthy international lawsuit filed by Hyatt. Bellow left, is Harald Dahle at the Headquarter of the Mostaza- fan Organization of the Islamic Revolusion. MJF is the largest Foundation (Bonyad) in the Middle East with ties to the Revolut-ionary Guard Corps, Quds Force where some of its head officials have come from, picture above left.

One of MJF's hotels, the former Hyatt Crown Tehran, now Pars- ian Azadi Hotel served as the base for Mr. Dahle throughout the years he worked in Theran.

MJF's Headquarter in Tehran is located in the former Hotel Hilt- on buildings north of Tehran. To the left, Harald Dahle shakes hand with MJF Contract Man- ager Reza Shari whom he also met with on Kish island. MJF was founded in 1979 as a suc- cessor to the Pahlavi Foundation. As an economic, cultural, and social welfare insti- tution. The Foundation controls manufacturing and industrial companies, whose profits are used according to the foundation to promote the living standards of the disabled and poor individuals of Iran and to develop public awareness with regards to history, books, museums and cinema. Bellow, video from seismic shooting in Hendyjan year 2000. Video (C) 2000 by Harald Dahle. All rights reserved. Click and play.

Bellow, in the Transistion Zone-1 at Hendyjan where Harald Dahle is eating his Chin- ese-cooked lunch, on the "salt pan" north of the Persian Gulf. A belt driven vehicle is seen to the far left belonging to the Cinese seismic company BGP. Harald Dahle, "We shot seimsic on the beach for six hours, till the tide started to come in again."

BEITOL MOGHADAS. It is impossible to understand today's Iran without first understanding the longest war in the 20th Cent- ury. The Beitol Moghadas Operation started on April, 30, 1982 as a combined effort by the Iranian Army and IRGC aiming to kick out invading Iraqi army from the Iranian soil. Iran retook Khorramshahr. About 19.000 Iraqi soldiers were taken prisoner after liberation of Khorramshahr which was occu- pied for 578 days. During the Beitol Moghadas 6.000 Iranian soldiers were killed and 24.000 were injured.With liberation of Khoramshahr on May, 24, the operation was a success. Picture bellow from occupation to liberation, May 23 1981.

Bellow: Never forgotten, always loved and respected. The Leader visits wounded war veterans from the Iran-Iraq war, in their homes which was much appreciated every-body.