Gulf Cooperation Council information ministers held here yesterday their 24th ordinary meeting, presided over by Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi, the minister of culture and information of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and attended by Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani, Secretary General of the GCC. At the outset of the meeting, which took place at Riyadh Ritz Carlton hotel, Dr. Altoraifi conveyed the greetings of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, his Crown Prince and Deputy Crown Prince to the ministers, welcoming them in their second country the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to hold their 24th ordinary meeting. He also welcomed the minister of information affairs of Bahrain Ali bin Mohammed Al-Rumaihi, who is making his debut as information minister of his country at the GCC ministerial level. However, he served in the media institution in his country as Chairman of the Broadcasting and TV Commission of Bahrain. Altoraifi thanked Sheikh Hamad bin Thamir Al Thani, Chairman of the Qatari Institution for Information, for his dedication and follow-up as the former rotatory president of the GCC information ministers council. Altoraifi said "we meet today amid regional and international critical circumstances that require exerting strenuous efforts more than ever to coordinate and unite our information and media policies to best serve our GCC countries peoples and live to their aspirations. No doubt that the GCC countries obtain the ability to create events and influence the decision-taking machine to serve those goals. The current phase also requires joint work so that our foreign information address should match with and reflect our information address circulating among our countries". He underscored the importance of achieving the vision of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud regarding ways of enhancing the GCC joint work and integration among the GCC countries, noting that the monarch's instructions were always oriented towards the GCC action unity and what serves the issues of the GCC states. He added that "our world of today is that which witnesses an influential role of information and media, particularly that falls outside the boundaries of the traditional information framework, doubling our responsibilities as information ministers who would be obliged to illuminate our societies of the hazards engulfing them and originated from the extremist terror thought in its capacity as a hostile thinking contradictory of the principles and values of our Islamic religion. We have to highlight the efforts exerted by the authorities concerned in our countries, their determination to fight terrorism, up-root its sources so as to protect the GCC society from the negative impacts which threaten its security and stability". Altoraifi went on to say that, emanating from this, the GCC information ministers council has decided to consider Hezbollah militias, its leaders, regiments, and the organizations affiliated to it or derived from it as all-out terrorist organization based on the hostile actions its militias were committing including smuggling of weapons and explosives, triggering of sedition, instigating chaos and violence, all considered as flagrant violation of our countries' sovereignty, security and stability. He quoted the recently-issued Tunisia Declaration by Arab interior ministers council's 33rd session in Tunis as denouncing the dangerous practices and works carried out by Hezbollah terrorist organization to destabilize the social security and peace in some Arab countries, a matter, he said, requires GCC joint coordination and action as we are in charge of media authorities in our GCC council to expose the terrorist and subversive plots of this terrorist party. The Minister of Culture and Information said Hezbollah malicious information address, its spiteful sectarian approach and its continual behavior to ignite sectarianism, and widen the circle of sedition and division in the region, particularly the accusations and claims Hezbollah is circulating and repeating against the GCC countries require the unification of efforts to stand side by side to unveil the fallacy of this terrorist party and its allies and to work decisively against the information mouthpieces of this party and their puppets. The Secretary General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani expressed gratitude and appreciation of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the presiding over of the current GCC member states' Supreme Council, and the support of the Kingdom, its leadership and people, as well as its caring and interest dedicated for the Gulf joint action, to realize aspirations of the GCC member states' citizens, towards more cooperation, accordance and integration. He also thanked the Minister of Information and Culture and president of the current session Dr. Adel bin Zaid Altoraifi for playing host to the meeting and the warm welcoming and hospitality accorded to the delegations and for the good preparation for the session, that preceded the meetings. On the other hand, he congratulated Ali bin Mohammed Al-Rumaihi, for being appointed as Minister for Information Affairs in the Kingdom of Bahrain, wishing him all success and luck. These efforts exerted will positively be reflected on accordance and integration among GCC member states that envisioned by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, to bolster GCC joint action process, endorsed by the leaders of the GCC member states' last December, in Riyadh. Then, Bahraini information affairs minister said, in his speech before the GCC information ministers, that the security and economic challenges which face the region, the increasing extremist thinking dangers, and the triggering of violence and terror necessitate on all of our countries doubling our responsibility to activate the role the GCC information and its importance in protecting the security and stability of the GCC countries and enhancing their unity and Arab identity and collective coordination to confront the counter media campaigns and clarify the realities at the regional and international arenas. He confirmed the importance of supporting joint media work to deepen and consolidate the GCC identity in all its dimensions according to a unified vision that preserve the Arab, Islamic and GCC identify of the GCC countries and their peoples and upgrade their humanitarian values calling for moderation, tolerance and dialogue among religions and cultures and reject sedition, terrorism, hatred and extremism. He called for activating joint media programs on the GCC media platforms and called for going ahead to transfer from the cooperation phase to establishing a strong and coherent GCC union. He invited the ministers to attend the opening ceremony of the 14th Gulf Festival for Broadcasting and Television. Then, a closed-door session started.
