Manama: Achieving stability in the Gulf is a matter of great importance for the region and the international community as a whole, Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khalid Bin Mohammad Al Attiyah said.

Speaking at the opening session of the joint meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers with US Secretary of State John Kerry, Al Attiyah stressed the GCC states’ firm stance regarding staving off any dangers or threat of nuclear weapons in the region while recognising the right of the region’s states to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes within the framework of international rules.

“We are looking forward to the nuclear deal between Iran and the P5+1 leading to maintaining security and stability in the region, stressing the importance of cooperation with Iran on the basis of the principles of good neighbourliness, non-interference in internal affairs and the resolution of disputes through peaceful means,” Al Attiyah said, quoted by the Qatar News Agency (QNA).

The Qatari minister said that the meeting was held within the framework of the implementation of the goals and objectives that achieve our common interests drawn up by GCC leaders with the United States.

The exceptional regional and international circumstances and unprecedented threats faced by many regions of the world, particularly the Middle East require the GCC countries and the United States to exert further efforts to confront all challenges in order to achieve global peace, security and stability, the minister said.

Al Attiyah pointed out that the Middle East region had suffered the effects and implications of the failure and freezing of the peace process and the continuation of the Israeli occupation of Arab territories for more than six decades, during which various regional and international efforts and initiatives did not succeed in putting an end to this occupation.

The Qatari minister added that the occupation was the most important source of the state of instability in the Middle East due to Israel’s intransigent positions contravening the will of the international community by continuing its illegal colony policy, the unjust blockade on the Gaza Strip and the violation of international law and the international legitimacy resolutions, the QNA reported.

Al Attiyah called on the United States to intensify efforts to restore the peace process and to end the occupation in accordance with relevant international legitimacy resolutions, the Arab initiative and to the principle of the two-state solution away from the partial solutions that have not led to a conclusion.

Touching on the situation in Yemen, Al Attiyah stressed the GCC keenness to preserve Yemen’s unity and territorial integrity, respect its sovereignty, support of the legitimacy and completion of the political process in accordance with the GCC initiative and its executive mechanism in addition to the outputs of Yemen’s National Dialogue Conference (NDC) held in January 2014, the Riyadh Declaration of May 2015 and relevant UN Security Council Resolutions.

With regard to the Syrian crisis, he said due to the weakness of the international community in dealing in a fair and serious way with the Syrian regime’s violations and crimes, we, along with the international community’s effective parties, should intensify joint efforts to halt violence, stem bloodshed and achieve the will of the Syrian people regarding unity, security and stability in accordance with the Geneva-1 resolutions.

On the Iraqi issue, Al Attiyah stressed that the stability of Iraq required a national consensus away from any foreign interventions and from any sectarian or ethnic distinctions but with respect for differences and the emphasis on the rejection of sectarian hegemony, noting that sectarian militia would mean partition.

The world still faces the growing phenomenon of terrorism, which recently affected some brotherly Gulf states, he added. “It is aimed at taking innocent lives, terrorising people and raising sedition, while targeting the world’s security and stability,” Al Attiyah said.

He called for further efforts and all measures to remove this phenomenon and eliminate its root causes as a danger posing a threat to global security and stability.