The kingdom of Saudi Arabia reversed course on Sunday, ending a ban on women athletes representing the conservative Muslim monarchy at the Olympics. In April, Saudi Prine Nawaf, who heads the country’s Olympic committee, said women would not be travelling with the official delegation to the 2012 games in London this summer. The decision raised an outcry, including propsals to bar Saudi Arabia from the games.

Sunday’s decision by the kingdom was related in a statement from the embassy in London:

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia is looking forward to full participation [in the Olympics]. The Saudi Olympic Committee will oversee participation of female competitors who qualify.

The statement about the Olympic Committee “oversee(ing) participation” of women likely refers to the initial comments by Prince Nawaf, who said that female athletes might be allowed to compete outside the purview of the official delegation.

Women who do compete — to include the most successful of Saudi Arabia’s female athletes, 18-year-old Dalma Rushdi Malhas, a competitor in Olympic equestrian — will be required to wear clothes that “preserve their dignity.” The BBC comments that the euphemism is likely to mean women will wear “sport hijab,” a loose-fitting garment that covers a woman’s hair but not face. Malhas has in the past given press conferences with her hair uncovered.

While allowing a single woman athlete into the Olympics doesn’t exactly erase rampant sexism in the powerful, oil-producing Persian Gulf country, the move does signal a step toward alleviating gender segregation in some conservative, religious MIddle Eastern countries’ participation in the Olympics.

Both Brunei and Qatar are set to send their first female competitors to the games. With the Saudi addition, Chloe at Feministing writes, “(T)here are now no countries remaining in the world who do not allow women to represent them at the Olympics. And that means that the Modern Olympic Games just got a hell of a lot more modern.”

Returning from a congressional trip to France, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates, Deputy House Whip Rep. Peter Welch (D-VT) is bringing back two clear messages from the U.S.’s Gulf allies. In an interview with the Bennington Banner, Welch emphasized that they support strong sanctions “to try and change Iranian behavior” and there is “broad apprehension in those countries about military action” and serious questions about whether a military strike could stop Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program.

Appearing on Fox News this afternoon, Welch pushed back against hawkish calls for military action against Iran:

I’d say three things. First, there’s widespread concern … that Iran is dangerous, that them having a nuclear weapon is extremely dangerous. … Two, there’s strong support for sanctions. But three, there’s great reservation and caution about when it comes to the question of using military force, with some apprehension about what that would unleash in the Middle East.

Welch went on to lay out a number of the regionally destabilizing steps that could follow an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities:

If you’re Qatar, where you’re fifty miles across the Strait of Hormuz, they feel they will be on the receiving end of any retaliatory response. Turkey, is very concerned about the loss of access to natural gas that heats their homes in the winter. The UAE, which is a strong U.S. ally, … fears what would happen to it with a response and what happens to the sea lanes and their ability to export oil.

Watch it:

Welch, who is a supporter of the Obama administration’s efforts to built a multilateral sanctions regime against Iran, expressed his concern that congressional efforts to tighten sanctions and push for the “military option” are unhelpful. “Frankly, I don’ think Congress is in a situation to micromanage. It turns into a political debate and one -upmanship,” he said.

Indeed Welch is not alone in identifying the potential dangers of a military strike on Iran’s nuclear program. Former Israeli intelligence chief Meir Dagan referred to an Israeli attack on Iran as “the stupidest thing I have ever heard” and, last week, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta called on Israel to “work together” with the international community, adding to his comments back in November that an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities would only briefly delay the country’s nuclear program.