As the big powers prepare for next week’s talks with Iran on its nuclear program, there is a sense of frustration and impotence in the very region which would be most affected by the development of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

There have long been complaints that the P5+1 — the five UN Security Council permanent members plus Germany — should involve the Middle East more closely in negotiations with Iran. Arms-control experts in countries such as Egypt have said that it would make sense for Cairo to join the process. The states of the Gulf Cooperation Council — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — are also saying that they should play a role.

At a conference on Nuclear Non-Proliferation in the Gulf in Doha, Qatar, late last month [March 21-22], organized by the British American Security Information Council (BASIC), there was grumbling from regional participants who resent being confined to the role of diplomatic spectator.

“If military action happened, we have no control over it,” said Mustafa Alani, Program Director for Security and Terrorism Studies at the Gulf Research Center. “We can’t raise a veto. Nobody listened to us about Iraq when we said it was wrong.”