The European Decalogue and the Middle Eastern Duodecim

... non-Arab countries (Iran, Israel and Turkey). The inclusion of these three states is fraught with serious problems: many in the Arab world would seek to set up an exclusive Arab-only mechanism because, they would argue, the non-Arab countries cannot be trusted. This undermines the whole idea of regional universalism – you cannot build a house without one wall. In addition, the Middle Eastern countries historically prefer to settle mutual issues bilaterally rather than multilaterally, and also in the ...