RIYADH, 1 March 2004 — The Gulf Cooperation Council yesterday denounced the assassination of a former rebel Chechen leader in Qatar and threw its support behind any efforts to uncover the facts behind the “criminal act”.
In a statement after two days of talks here, foreign ministers from the six-nation GCC said the Feb. 13 killing of Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev was a criminal act that defied human, religious, and moral values.
But Kuwaiti Information Minister Muhammed Abu Al-Hasan, whose country currently chairs the group, told reporters he did not believe tensions between Russia and Qatar over the issue would escalate. The GCC would like its good relations with Russia to “flourish and prosper,” the minister added.
Qatar has charged two Russians with involvement in the car blast. Moscow has acknowledged the men were spies but said they were not involved in the killing and accused Qatar of aiding terrorism by giving Yandarbiyev refuge for three years. Qatar said Saturday that Russia had detained in Moscow two of its citizens, members of the national wrestling team.
Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad ibn Jassim declined to respond to the Russian accusations and told reporters his country was still looking into the case.
Minister Abu Al-Hasan said the foreign ministers discussed a proposal put forward by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Syria to “rectify the Arab situation” and reform the Arab League.
He said they appointed Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal to convey to key officials of the three countries their observations together with their idea of forming an Arab security council, in preparation for wider discussion in the Arab League. But the Kuwaiti minister did not say whether the GCC ministers actually signed off on the Saudi-Egyptian-Syrian proposal.
The ministers later left for Cairo to join their League counterparts for meetings starting today which will prepare the ground for structural reform of the pan-Arab organization ahead of a March 29-30 summit in Tunis.
The minister said the discussions were held in two rounds with every round lasting four to five hours due to the complexity and range of the topics discussed.
On Washington’s “Greater Middle East Initiative” to democratize the region, the minister told Arab News that the matter was not discussed, “because it was not put on the agenda for discussion.”
“All that was said about the matter was an exchange of opinions,” he added.
The minister said the group would continue to support all recommendations from the United Nations to establish peace and prosperity in Iraq. He said the GCC will continue to stand by the Iraqi people in their hour of crisis, stressing the importance of the unity of Iraq and its sovereignty as a state and calling for non-intervention in domestic affairs.
The ministers, he added, stressed the importance of the United Nations as a legal international body and its essential role in Iraq that would pave the way for Iraqis to determine their own political future as soon as possible.
