Speaking in Oman on the start of the 22nd Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit, His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), called for a comprehensive review of the Arab position and an awareness of the serious challenges facing the Arab world today.
In an interview to the Omani news agency, Sheikh Zayed stressed that these challenges needed to be confronted collectively, and pointed out that for its part the GCC had always done everything in its power to reinforce the security and stability of the region and support Arab and Islamic causes. He added that the 22nd summit in Muscat reflected a desire to work together for the common good. Commenting on the many achievements of the GCC in the past years, H.H. Sheikh Zayed noted that the leaders and the people of the Gulf had even greater ambitions and aspirations to be fulfilled.
The 22nd GCC summit, which takes place on the last two days of 2001, will place an emphasis on joint action by the countries of the Gulf in meeting the challenges of a world situation that has changed drastically following the September 11 attacks on the USA. As part of the collective effort, UAE Minister of Information Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed al-Nahyan will present a strategy for the GCC countries to fight back against anti-Islamic attitudes that have become prevalent in the Western media
H.H. Sheikh Zayed thanked His Majesty Sultan Qaboos, leader of Oman, for organizing the summit, and commented that the summit has all the ingredients for success because of the insight and understanding of the GCC's affairs of Sultan Qaboos. He hailed the warm, brotherly relations between the peoples of the Sultanate and of the UAE, which he said had taken the two countries beyond bilateral co-operation to genuine integration in many fields, with a positive effect on the GCC. (www.albawaba.com)
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