MANAMA, 27 November 2005 — Interior ministers of the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states met here yesterday with sources saying they are a step closer to adopting a Saudi proposal to set up a special panel to combat terrorism.
The proposed counterterrorism center, which has been suggested a number of times by Saudi officials in recent months, is likely to be hosted by the Kingdom, the sources said.
The Gulf states — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) — are also expected to find ways to better fight organized crime, particularly money laundering and drug trafficking, and to improve communications.
Proposals will be presented to the GCC leaders at their meeting later next month in Abu Dhabi, UAE, where they are likely to be approved.
Kuwait’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said that despite the success in combating terrorism by the states that experienced it, there was still a need to be cautious.
“Those who mean our countries and us harm, could very well attempt it again,” Sheikh Sabah said.
Last month the outgoing US 5th Fleet commander Vice Admiral David Nichols said that progress made in the past 18 months to counter terrorism by countries in the region, particularly Saudi Arabia, had been overlooked because of the situation in Iraq.
He also revealed that in the past 18 months a significant number of terrorists had been captured and plots disrupted in the UAE and
Oman, signaling “virtually every country in the region has been leaning into the fight against terrorism in a way that was not occurring three years ago”.
Saudi Arabia has been successful in curbing a wave of terrorist attacks that began in mid-2003, killing or apprehending key figures in the militant groups that attacked residential, commercial and governmental compounds.
