Manama: The Gulf Cooperation Council interior ministers last night began discussions here to set up a GCC police system, sources close to the meeting told Gulf News.
"The decision to set up a police system is in response to the sensitivity of the situation in the region," the sources said. The new arrangement will be on the lines of the Interpol system.
In his opening remarks, Bahrain's Interior Minister Shaikh Rashid Bin Abdullah Al Khalifa said that the GCC needed "to establish a security entity that operates on a permanent basis to ensure a high level of security deterrence and collective responses."
Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE Minister of Interior, said it was "very essential for us to deal with security issues with more openness, solidarity and transparency.
"We are one nation, and what affects one country affects all of us," Shaikh Saif said. "So we share a collective responsibility to rise up to our nations' aspirations."
The meeting will also discuss the establishment of a centre for gathering and sharing information, the sources said, adding that it would "most likely" be located in Riyadh.
The sources added that the meetings, held behind closed doors at a local hotel where security was at unprecedented levels, will agree to set up anti-terrorism centres in each of the six states. "The centres will have staff from the member states to ensure the highest levels of coordination and synchronisation," the sources said.
According to the sources, the ministers will also discuss an extradition treaty.
