The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Sunday urged member states to exercise “caution and vigilance” after Bahrain's announcement that it has broken up a cell planning attacks. “The condition in the region and dangers facing member states require more caution and vigilance in order to thwart criminal attempts at destabilization,” GCC Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani said in a statement. He welcomed the security cooperation between Bahrain and Qatar that he credited with having foiled attacks on the Bahraini interior ministry, the Saudi embassy in Manama, and the causeway linking Saudi Arabia and Bahrain. “Security coordination and cooperation between the council members will ensure the failure of these destabilising attempts,” said Zayani. He said the alleged plot reflected “desperate attempts ... of continuous interference in the internal affairs of the kingdom of Bahrain and other GCC countries.” The Bahraini interior ministry announced Saturday that four members of a cell planning attacks were detained in Qatar and turned over to Manama, while a fifth suspect was arrested in Bahrain. Meanwhile, the Bahraini judiciary Sunday linked the busted “terrorist” cell to Iran's Revolutionary Guards. The five men are accused of belonging to a “terrorist group” with ties to the intelligence services of a foreign state, a judiciary spokesman said, quoted by state news agency BNA. He said the five were to be “sent to Iran to receive military training,” notably with the elite Revolutionary Guards. Citing confessions from the suspects, the judiciary spokesman said the cell had been set up by two men he named as Abderrauf Al-Shaieb and Ali Mashaima, living abroad, through contacts with the five accused. “They coordinated with military structures abroad, including the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij (militia) in Iran to train the recruits of the group in handling arms and explosives,” he said. The spokesman said the plan was launched by sending cell members in small groups to Iran. “One of them went to Iran where he met with a certain Assad Qassir, linked to the Revolutionary Guards and the Basij,” he said. The suspect received arms training and “sums of money from Iranian elements to finance the organization.”
