Dr. Abdullatif Al-Zayani, Secretary General of the Riyadh-based Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), called today for wide-range regional and international cooperation to deal with the tense situation in the Middle East. In a speech before the GCC forum for Research, organized by the Gulf Center for Research at the University of Cambridge, Al-Zayani also called for containing the exploding disputes and settling sustainable situations to enable the Middle East overcome the state of instability it is witnessing. He said the huge challenges facing the region were not over yet and what is in the offing might be more difficult and complicated, noting that one of the repercussions of the disastrous incidents that ripped the region was represented in the destruction of the economic infrastructure of the countries that witnessed political turmoil and flushed their negative impacts to neighboring countries. Dr. Al-Zayani went on to say that weakened countries turned to be sources of terrorism, constituting direct threat to their regional neighbors and serve as harbor for extremist groups and organized crime bands as well as trafficking networks and illegal immigration in addition to the humanitarian disasters and catastrophes they cast on them. He cited the importance of confronting terror and extremism, non-interference in the domestic affairs of other countries, the failure of the notion of a unilateral concept of democracy, the importance of consolidating regional cooperation, the consideration of the Palestinian issue as the core of the lava in the Middle East and the importance of reaching a solution to it, the forecast of what could happen in the region in future, the importance of reforming the UN Security Council to safeguard the world security and peace as lessons drawn from the developments surfacing nowadays. The Secretary General of the GCC paid tribute to the marvelous ability his organization has shown to adapt with the changes drifting the region through historic constitutional, judicial, economic and social reforms its member states have experienced. He added that the GCC countries have adopted a number of joint projects to enhance cooperation and integration in the field of joint security, citing the establishment of a unified military command, GCC police, and GCC Academy for defense, security and strategic studies. He noted that the GCC member countries have succeeded to foil dangerous terrorist plots in the region and were able to dismantle terrorist machine and networks, calling for activating the international center for combating terrorism which was proposed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at an international conference held in Riyadh and lauding Saudi Arabia's generous donation worth $100 million to the center. In this regard, he confirmed that the GCC supports gradual, organized and calculated change, citing the GCC initiative for Reconciliation in Yemen that spared GCC southern neighbor time, effort, and capabilities, hoping that Yemenis would still take the grip to evade civil war and go straight towards security, building and stability.
