Xinhua: Chief of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups six Gulf Arab countries, said on Saturday that the bloc did not oppose referring Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council, which might lead to sanctions. Xinhua
Chief of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups six Gulf Arab countries, said on Saturday that the bloc did not oppose referring Iran’s nuclear file to the UN Security Council, which might lead to sanctions.
GCC Secretary General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah was cited by the official Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) as saying that the GCC had no objection to the referral of Iran’s nuclear program to the Security Council or any international resolutions regarding this issue.
Speaking upon arrival in Kuwait, Al-Attiyah also reiterated the bloc’s call for a Middle East free from weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
But the secretary general also said that Iran had the right to peaceful nuclear technology.
“It is a legal right to the use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes for Iran and other countries in the region,” he said, but stressed the importance of maintaining stability, security and peace.
Al-Attiyah also asserted that the GCC hoped that the Iranian nuclear issue could be solved through dialogues and diplomatic means.
The board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution on Feb. 4 to report Iran to the UN Security Council over its nuclear issue.
Uneasy about Iran’s nuclear program, the GCC- grouping Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain- has long called for a nuclear-free Mideast, but has cautiously avoided harsh words toward Iran.
Meanwhile, on U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s visit to the region next week, Al-Attiyah said that the GCC leaders would discuss with the top U.S. diplomat the election victory of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), noting that the ballot results were the Palestinian people’s choice through democracy.
Hamas has expected rich Gulf Arab countries to give more aid to the new Palestinian government, to be formed by the group, in a bid to meet an urgent financial need.
In addition, Al-Attiyah called for dialogues between the West and the Muslim world over the recent cartoon outrage, voicing the GCC’s refusal of any acts offending personnel, properties, or diplomatic missions.
The cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammad, which appeared in some Western publications, have touched off widespread, sometimes violent, protests in the Muslim world.
Al-Attiyah, a Qatari, arrived in Kuwait to congratulate Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah on becoming the new Kuwaiti emir.
