Gulf nations eye nuclear energy amid tenser situation
11/12/2006 16:05
Six Gulf Arab nations wrapped up their two-day summit yesterday,
announcing their intention to acquire peaceful nuclear technology, while the
Saudi King had warned on Saturday that the region is on the brink of
exploding.
The 27th summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), a regional
alliance grouping Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and the United Arab
Emirates, has been held on Saturday and Sunday in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi
Arabia.
EYEING PEACEFUL NUCLEAR PLAN
On Sunday, six Gulf Arab nations
announced at the end of the summit that they intended to pursue nuclear
technology for peaceful purposes and would establish a joint plan in this
regard.
"The (leaders) commissioned a study by members of the Gulf
Cooperation Council to set up a common program in the area of nuclear energy for
peaceful purposes, according to international standards and systems," said the
statement read by GCC Secretary General Abdul-Rahman al-Attiya.
"The peaceful
use of nuclear energy is the right of every country," said Attiya, underlining
that "every nuclear-related activity will abide by international treaties and be
subject to inspection."
In a press conference after the summit, Saudi Foreign
Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal dismissed the speculation that GCC's nuclear
intention would add to the regional threat.
"We will develop it openly, not
in secret. We want no bombs. All we want is a whole Middle East that is free of
weapons of mass destruction," he told reporters.
Faisal also urged
neighboring Iran to cooperate with the international community on the nuclear
standoff which has raised great concerns among Gulf states.
Many suspect Iran
is secretly developing atomic weapons, which has been bluntly denied by the
Persian country.
Faisal, meanwhile, called on Israel to accept international
inspection on its nuclear facilities, saying, "Israel has no excuse to develop
nuclear arms."
Although widely believed to be the only nuclear power in the
region, Israel has never admitted or denied that it has nuclear weapons.
ARAB
ON BRINK OF EXPLODING
Saudi King Abdullah warned, while inaugurating the
summit on Saturday, that the Arab world was on the brink of exploding because of
escalating conflicts in the Palestinian territories, Iraq and Lebanon.
In his
unusually strong rhetoric, King Abdullah said, "our Arab region is surrounded by
unrest and danger. It is almost like a powder keg waiting for a spark to
explode,"
Speaking of Palestinian problem, he said "the most dangerous thing
is the internal rift between the Palestinian brothers," referring to the
in-fighting between the rival ruling Hamas movement and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah.
As for Iraq, the Saudi King said "brothers in Iraq are
slaughtering each other, and the country is engulfed by bloodshed and violence,"
warning of the division in the country.
On Wednesday, the US bipartisan Iraq
Study Group issued the highly-anticipated report that recommends major changes
in the Bush Administration's Iraq policy, which it says is "not working."
The
Sunni-dominated Gulf nations also fear Iraq will be under too much influence
imposed by the Shiite Iran.
As for Lebanon, he also voiced concern that the
unity of the country is in danger.
HINDERED ECONOMIC INTEGRATION
The
already slow-paced GCC economic integration process suffered another blow as
reports said Oman will not join the Arab Gulf monetary union by the deadline of
2010.
"Oman will not join the single currency union because it won't be ready
by that time (2010)," an unnamed official from a Gulf state told local media on
Sunday.
The decision, although not being officially announced yet, cast
doubts over the possibility of achieving GCC's main economic goals --
establishing a common market by 2007 and a single currency by 2010.
There had
been a major setback in last year's summit when the GCC decided to extend the
transition period of the bloc's customs union from 2005 to the end of
2007.
Founded in 1981, the GCC has been striving to achieve wide- ranging
cooperation among member states in face of internal and international
challenges.
Xinhua
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