GCC Reiterate Support for International Anti-terrorism EffortsThe Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on Sunday reiterated support for the international efforts to identify and prosecute culprits of recent anti-US terrorist attacks.GCC foreign ministers confirmed the position in a statement issued at the end of two-hour closed-door talks in the Saudi Red Sea port city of Jiddah, Kuwait's official KUNA news agency reported. "The GCC is ready to participate in an international coalition to fight against terrorism," Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Muhammad Bin Mubarak Bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, chairman of the GCC extraordinary meeting, was quoted by KUNA as saying. The meeting, the second in less than two months, was held amid the U.S. efforts to build a global anti-terrorism coalition in the wake of the attacks which destroyed the World Trade Center in New York and part of the Pentagon in Washington and killed thousands of people. During the meeting, the ministers renewed condemnation of the attacks, saying what had happened in the U.S. "was an act inimical to the percepts of Islam and a violation of the international and human norms." They also extended condolences to the U.S. government and families of the innocent victims. In addition, the ministers also urged the United Nations Security Council and sponsors of the Middle East peace process to pay attention to "the terrorism targeting the Palestinian people by Israel." "The international community should exert maximum efforts to stop the brutal Israeli attacks on the Palestinian people and end the Israeli occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories," the statement said. GCC, a regional political and economic alliance established in 1981, groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. |
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