Preserve Iraq’s Arab-Islamic Identity: GCC

JEDDAH, 7 September 2005 — The six-member Gulf Cooperation Council yesterday emphasized that the Arab and Islamic identity of Iraq needed to be preserved, amid increasing concern over the country’s future.

Addressing a GCC foreign ministers’ meeting in Jeddah, Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed ibn Mubarak Al-Khalifa, current president of the GCC ministerial council, also expressed the council’s deep concern over the continuing bloody violence in the war-torn country.

“Sheikh Muhammad expressed his hope that Iraq’s new constitution would meet the hopes and aspirations of all its people and protect its Arab and Islamic identity to remain as an effective member of the Arab and Islamic environment,” the Saudi Press Agency said.