The GCC foreign ministers, meeting in Riyadh, also condemned Tel Aviv for the deliberate inclusion of several Islamic monuments, including Al-Ibrahim Mosque in Al-Khalil, (Hebron) and Bilal Mosque in Bethlehem, among its Jewish heritage and culture sites.
The meeting, chaired by Mohammad Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah, Kuwaiti deputy prime minister and foreign minister, also criticized the Israeli excavation under the fences of occupied Jerusalem, and said: “These acts represent provocations for Muslims all over the world” and a plan to wipe out the great cultural remnants of Islamic history.
The ministers urged the UN Security Council to intervene and act swiftly to stop these actions, said a press statement issued after the meeting. The ministers also called on the international community to act firmly against the Israeli practices, which included “annexation of Palestinian territories in complete disregard of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.”
The ministers urged UNESCO and other heritage bodies to take necessary measures to save Al-Aqsa Mosque and other Islamic sites from Israeli assaults.
The ministers called on Tehran to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and they also pledged full political and financial support to Yemen. They stressed the right of countries in the region to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes within the framework of the relevant international conventions; they demanded compliance with these conventions by all countries of the region, including Israel, without any exception.
The statement said that the Gulf states had renewed their positions and extended their support to the UAE in its disagreement with Tehran about the ownership of certain islands in the Gulf.
The ministers said that they would attend a meeting on March 17 in Sanaa in order to map out future strategies to improve peace and security in Yemen in particular and in the Gulf region as a whole. “The foreign ministers have hailed the decision to stop military operations in northern Yemen,” said GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al-Attiyah.
He said the ministers had welcomed the return of calm on the Saudi-Yemeni border and the cessation of hostilities in Yemen’s northwest. The ministerial council also renewed its full support for the unity, security and stability of Yemen.
Al-Attiyah said the ministers were briefed about the donors’ conference for Yemen that was very successful in generating aid and support for that country.
On military cooperation, the statement said that all aspects of military cooperation among Gulf states were discussed.
The ministers expressed their concern on the continuing incidents of hijackings in international waterways. They stressed the need to intensify regional and international coordination to deal with these criminal acts.
In the cultural field, the ministers reviewed the MoU between the GCC General Secretariat and the Arab World Institute in Paris. The MoU is part of the GCC’s plan to develop closer cooperation with various cultural institutions around the world.
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