Panetta to meet GCC in NYC

For the second year in a row, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will meet with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in New York City alongside the United Nations General Assembly opening session. Panetta will attend the Friday meeting, a U.S. defense official confirmed to the E-Ring late Monday, amid simmering questions over Syria’s borders, ...

Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

For the second year in a row, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will meet with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in New York City alongside the United Nations General Assembly opening session.

For the second year in a row, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will meet with representatives of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in New York City alongside the United Nations General Assembly opening session.

Panetta will attend the Friday meeting, a U.S. defense official confirmed to the E-Ring late Monday, amid simmering questions over Syria’s borders, which are pulsating from civil war; Egypt’s expansion of counterterrorism operations on the Sinai; Iraq’s quickening spiral into disarray; and whether — or when — the U.S. should use military strikes to halt Iran’s nuclear progress.

The GCC is a partnership between the monarchial states of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, and Bahrain, all linked by their massive oil reserves.

The group has emerged recently as a bloc opponent to Iran’s meddling in Syria’s civil war. The Sunni-majority GCC states criticize the Shiite-dominated Iranian regime for opposing the Sunni rebels in Syria.

Any U.S., Israeli, or NATO strike on Iran certainly would cause enormous regional turmoil, and recent reports cited one Iranian official threatening to target U.S. military bases in the region in retaliation. But Panetta and top Pentagon officials like Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and Jim Miller, under secretary of defense for policy, have consistently maintained there is more time for sanctions and diplomacy to work on Tehran’s leaders.

In his eighth visit to New York’s grand week for diplomacy, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday deflected reporters’ questions about the political dispute between Israel, which he referred to as "the Zionists," and the Obama administration over red lines. Ahmadinejad appeared to dismiss the issue as quickly as Panetta did two weeks ago.

Last year’s GCC meeting with Panetta drew attention because of security questions surrounding the pro-democracy Arab uprisings stretching from Tunisia to Bahrain.

This year’s meeting follows renewed protests, but this time by anti-Western demonstrators and extremists that have caused the Pentagon do deploy additional Marines and ships to the Middle East for backup embassy security duty.

Panetta said recently of the demonstrations that he felt that extremist elements were taking advantage of the security vacuum that was left behind by toppled dictatorships, but were as ineffective in swaying popular opinion as the KKK is in the U.S.

Kevin Baron is a national security reporter for Foreign Policy, covering defense and military issues in Washington. He is also vice president of the Pentagon Press Association. Baron previously was a national security staff writer for National Journal, covering the "business of war." Prior to that, Baron worked in the resident daily Pentagon press corps as a reporter/photographer for Stars and Stripes. For three years with Stripes, Baron covered the building and traveled overseas extensively with the secretary of defense and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, covering official visits to Afghanistan and Iraq, the Middle East and Europe, China, Japan and South Korea, in more than a dozen countries. From 2004 to 2009, Baron was the Boston Globe Washington bureau's investigative projects reporter, covering defense, international affairs, lobbying and other issues. Before that, he muckraked at the Center for Public Integrity. Baron has reported on assignment from Asia, Africa, Australia, Europe, the Middle East and the South Pacific. He was won two Polk Awards, among other honors. He has a B.A. in international studies from the University of Richmond and M.A. in media and public affairs from George Washington University. Originally from Orlando, Fla., Baron has lived in the Washington area since 1998 and currently resides in Northern Virginia with his wife, three sons, and the family dog, The Edge. Twitter: @FPBaron

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