Confronting and Containing: The GCC’s Delicate Balance with Iran

Featured Speakers: Ambassador Patrick Theros, Dr. Ebtesam Al-Ketbi, Ali Vaez, Dr. Zeidon Alkinani

Bios:

Ambassador Patrick Theros (moderator)

Strategic Advisor and Senior Fellow, Gulf International Forum

Ambassador Patrick Theros is a Strategic Advisor and Senior Fellow at Gulf International Forum. He served as the U.S. Ambassador to the State of Qatar from 1995-1998. Prior to his appointment, he served as Deputy Coordinator for Counterterrorism, responsible for the coordination of all U.S. Government counterterrorism activities outside the United States. From 1991-1993, Ambassador Theros served as the Political Advisor to the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command (CENTCOM).

Ambassador Theros joined the Foreign Service in 1963, and served in a variety of positions in Washington D.C., Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Nicaragua and Syria, including charge d’affaires and Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. embassies in the United Arab Emirates and Jordan. In 1999, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifah Al-Thani awarded Ambassador Theros the Qatar Order of Merit for his efforts in service of the U.S.-Qatar bilateral relationship. His commitment to national service also earned him the President’s Meritorious Service Award and the Secretary of Defense Medal for Meritorious Civilian Service (1992). Ambassador Theros has also earned four Superior Honor Awards, the highest awards for distinguished service given by the Foreign Service. After his retirement from the Foreign Service, Ambassador Theros assumed the office of President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council in March 2000 until his retirement in 2017.

Ambassador Theros’ personal commitment to community and public service earned him the rank of Knight Commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem (1999), as well as the Ellis Island Medal of Freedom (2005). In addition to his duties as President of the U.S.-Qatar Business Council, Ambassador Theros is also active in the following organizations: The Middle East Policy Council, Board of Directors; The Council of Foreign Relations, Member; The Washington Institute of Foreign Affairs, Member; and The American Academy of Diplomacy, Member.

Ambassador Theros graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service in 1963. He has done advanced studies at the American University in Washington, D.C., the Universidad Centroamericana in Nicaragua, the Armed Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia, and the National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He is married to Aspasia (nee Pahigiannis) and has three children. He speaks and reads Spanish, Arabic and Greek professionally.

Dr. Ebtesam Al-Ketbi

Founder and President, Emirates Policy Center (EPC)

Dr. Ebtesam Al-Ketbi is the Founder and President of the Emirates Policy Center (EPC), one of the most influential think tanks in the Arab world. She is a Professor of Political Science at the United Arab Emirates University. In recognition of her position as the leader of one of the Arab world’s most influential think tanks, she served as a member of the Consultative Commission of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) (2015-2024).

In July 2018, the Arabian Business magazine featured her among the 50 Most Influential Women in the Arab world. In 2019, Dr. Al-Ketbi received the Women Super Achiever Award during the World Women Leadership Congress. In 2021, she was named Advisor to the Global Commission for Post-Pandemic Policy. In January 2023, Dr. Al-Ketbi was named an Advisory Board Member of T20 International.

She is currently a Member of the Board of Directors of the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, the Global Advisory Board of the Observer Research Foundation in India, the International Advisory Board of the Italian Med-Or Foundation, and the Indo-Pacific Civil Society Forum (IPCSF). She has also been accepted as a Global Member in the non-
governmental “Trilateral Commission (Europe)”, and an inaugural member of the MENA

Regional Advisory Council of the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT) in Spain. Dr. Ebtesam al-Ketbi is a regular commentator on political events in the Gulf region in various Arab and foreign media outlets. She is the author of several books, including The UAE as AMiddle Power: Strategies to Adapt to a Divided World Order (2025), The  UAE’s Role in Empowering Religious Diplomacy (2023), The UAE Power Building Model: Mohamed bin Zayed’s Vision (2022), The UAE Power-Building Model and Foreign Policy Shifts (2021) and Iran and the Biden Administration: A Potential Return to Negotiations (2021).

Dr. Ali Vaez

Iran Project Director and Senior Advisor to the President, International Crisis Group

Ali Vaez is Crisis Group’s Iran Project Director and Senior Adviser to the President. He led Crisis Group’s efforts in helping to bridge the gaps between Iran and the P5+1 that led to the landmark 2015 nuclear deal. Previously, he served as a Senior Political Affairs Officer at the United Nations Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and was the Iran Project Director at the Federation of American Scientists. He is an adjunct professor at Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service and a Fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is a co-author of How Sanctions Work: Iran and the Impact of Economic Warfare.

Trained as a scientist, Vaez has more than a decade of experience in journalism. He has written widely on Iranian affairs and is a regular contributor to mainstream media outlets, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Foreign Policy and Foreign Affairs. He is a frequent guest on CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera and NPR. Vaez was a post-doctoral fellow at Harvard University from 2008 to 2010 and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Geneva and a master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Dr. Zeidon Alkinani

Middle East Political Analyst; Founding Director, Arab Perspectives Institute

Dr. Zeidon Alkinani is a Middle East political analyst and Founding Director of the Arab Perspectives Institute. Former Lecturer at Georgetown University in Qatar and the University of Aberdeen. He holds a PhD in Politics and International Relations from the University of Aberdeen and leads strategic initiatives in Qatar’s educational non-profit sector. He is A regular commentator and contributor to prominent regional and international outlets, and a frequent panelist at academic and policy conferences. Dr. Alkinani is the author of a forthcoming Routledge book on ingroup rivalries in consociational democracies, with a focus on post-2003 Iraq.