Riyadh: Ministers of interior from the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) pledged on Wednesday to work togeather to tackle terrorism, money laundering and organized crime.
“The move to set up security and stability, as discussed by the interior ministers, requires coordination between all nations in the region,” GCC Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Al- Attiyah said after a ministerial meeting in Riyadh.
“Gulf states are facing serious challenges in the forum of terrorism and organized crime that call for increased vigilance and intelligence sharing.”
The ministers, who were attending the consultative meting, discussed a whole range of security issues currently confronting the Gulf region, as well as plans and policies to tackle terror calls, drug traffickers, pirates and swindlers.
They also covered existing steps taken to implement security-related dicisions, ways to boost the exchange of information among GCC security agencies, and the implications of recent developments in the Middle East region.
Interior Minsiter Prince Naif led the Saudi delegation and opened the meeting.
It was not known at the time of going to press weather the issue of Israel, which is accused of deploying intelligance agents throughout the Gulf region, was discussed.
A senior GCC official recently claimed that the Israeli secret service Mossad had established an espionage network in Gulf states,with their agents operating under the cover of top-ranking executives and professionals in government and private organizations.
An official at the meeting claimed a burgeoning drug trade often stemmed from security problems. He refused to rule out a link between drug traffickers and Al-Qaeda, which allegedly uses drug money to finance its operations.
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