Foreign ministers from the six Gulf states held firm on Iraq and congratulated Bahrain and Qatar for resolving a territorial dispute as they met Saturday in Riyadh ahead of a summit of Arab leaders, said reports.
The six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC)-- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- adopted a resolution calling for Iraq "to execute the commitments contained in (UN) Security Council resolutions," a final communiqué said, quoted by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
The countries denounced “Iraqi officials for making threatening remarks against Kuwait and Saudi Arabia in recent months, including unveiling a map in the Iraqi parliament that showed Kuwait as Iraqi territory,” said the statement.
GCC expressed optimism that the upcoming Arab summit would adopt beneficial resolutions for the interests of the GCC, Arab and Islamic countries, calling for Iraq to implement the UN resolutions.
Bahrain's Education Minister Abdelaziz Mohamed Al-Fadhil called for the resolution of a dispute between the UAE and Iran over the Abu Mussa and the Tomb islands calling it a source of "instability in the region."
He "condemned Iranian military maneuvers in the three occupied islands and in the territorial waters of the United Arab Emirates," according to SPA.
The foreign ministers were meeting in Riyadh ahead of a summit of Arab leaders March 27 and 28 in Amman.
Meanwhile, the GCC denounced US Secretary of State Colin Powell's comments last week to the US Congress calling Jerusalem Israel's capital.
The GCC called Powell's statements "contrary to international resolutions."
The ministers also supported Palestinian demands for an international force in the occupied territories to "assure international protection to the Palestinian people against Israeli aggression," said the statement.
The GCC also congratulated Bahrain and Qatar for the resolution Friday of their dispute over three territories.
The International Court of Justice in The Hague handed down a verdict Friday, endorsing Bahrain's sovereignty over the Hawar islands and Qitat Jarada island. Qatar was awarded the Zubara strip on the northwest of the Qatari peninsula, which it already controlled, and also received the Fasht al-Dibel rocks and Jinan island.
The ministers praised the verdict as a "historic event" that "will contribute to the strengthening of brotherly ties between the two nations in the interest of the member states of the GCC," said the statement – Albawaba.com
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