Kuwait has imported gas masks and the consequent siren practice reveals the fear of another Iraqi attack. Bahrain's Minister of Cabinet Affairs has flown to Cairo for urgent consultations with President Mubarak. And Jameel Hujailan, the secretary-general of the GCC, has been shuttling between Gulf capitals.
Newspaper headlines indicate an air of anxious expectancy.
The Gulf Summit of 1997 is just around the corner, close on the heels of the Islamic Summit in Tehran. The new millennium is at hand. These range from the continuing crisis with Iraq to the controversial MENA summit in Doha. In the good old days, conflicting views and opinions were few and when they did crop up, they were handled quietly so that things never got out of control. The countries of the Gulf are coming closer together economically but the gap is widening on other fronts.