GCC Summit Opens with Call for Solution to Regional Crisis

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Sunday, December 22, 2002

GCC Summit Opens with Call for Solution to Regional Crisis

The 23rd summit of the Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) kicked off Saturday in Doha with a call for quick solution to regional crisis, notable the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Iraqi issue.

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GCC Summit Opens

The 23rd summit of the Gulf CooperationCouncil (GCC) kicked off Saturday in Doha with a call for quick solution to regional crisis, notable the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Iraqi issue.

Speaking at opening ceremony of the annual summit, Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani called for an early end to UN weapons inspections in Iraq.

While welcoming the cooperation of Iraq with international weapons inspectors in line with UN Resolution 1441, Al-Thani calledon the international community to exert its efforts to facilitate completing the weapons inspection as soon as possible.

At the same time, the emir stressed GCC states' "fundamental andfirm position" with regard to the sovereignty and security of Kuwait, its territorial integrity and non-interference in its domestic affairs.

This was apparently referred to the long-time dispute between Kuwait and Iraq since Iraq's invasion of the tiny Gulf country in 1990.

On Palestinian issue, the emir called for Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Palestinian territories to the line of the 1967 border, at the opening of the 23rd summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

"There is a tragic situation in Palestine, where the Arab world, unfortunately, stands helpless while the Israeli forces continue their aggressive practices against the Palestinian people and their leadership," he noted.

He urged Arab leaders to reach a new strategy that would secure the maximum level of Arab solidarity and joint action, stressing that the Palestinian people have legitimate rights to establish their independent state on their national soil, with Jerusalem as its capital.

This summit comes amid a time when Iraqi issue is at the most dangerous phase, since the United States and Britain are accelerating preparation for a military strike against Iraq, and a time when the Palestinian cause is in a very grave situation due tothe escalation of Israeli aggression in the Palestinian lands.

Meanwhile, the two-day summit is also expected to focus on economic achievements in the GCC states, with the formal announcement of a customs union starting from Jan. 1, 2003.

High on the agenda is the setup of customs union among the state members, namely Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Although there has been an agreement among the members to uniformly lower tariffs to 5 percent from Jan.1, 2003 from 15 percent , serious differences still remain unresolved, a source close to the GCC earlier warned.

The last summit of GCC was held on December, 2001 in Oman's capital of Muscat, during which the six oil-rich Gulf monarchies approved to launch a customs union at the beginning of 2003.

The approval of the customs union was considered as a major step towards implementing the Gulf joint economic agreement signed in 1981.

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