Apparent Dramatic Improvement in GCC Security? Or Outbreak of Diplomatic Illness?

The Sixth Annual International Institute of Strategic Studies Regional Security Summit is being held in Manama from 11 through 13 December.

In an apparent sign of markedly decreased tensions in this formerly volatile part of the world, neither Secretary Gates from the United States nor the Foreign Minister of France, Bernard Kouchner, needed to attend. Secretary Gates was in Kirkuk for a clearly much more important "sunny day town hall meeting" with 300 US troops. Foreign Minister Kouchner was in Paris to join President Sarkozy for critical meetings with President Mubarak of Egypt who is arriving Sunday, which coincidentally is the last day of the conference.

Completely unrelated to this bit of news were the comments by the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Bahrain, Shaykh Khalid Bin Ahmed Al Khalifah, against imposing additional sanctions on Iran and criticizing the exclusion of the Arab states of the Gulf from the negotiations with Iran.  And it appears even more comments here.

Also completely unrelated to both was the reported presence of the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran at the conference.