(ANSAmed) – DUBAI, SEPTEMBER 16 – Gulf Cooperation Council
countries have reached ”a full agreement” on measures to be
taken against terrorist organisations.

The announcement was made by Kuwaiti Interior Ministry
Undersecretary Ghazy Al-Omar following a meeting of GCC interior
ministry undersecretaries in Riyadh on Sunday.

”The GCC security officials agreed on a set of
recommendations and suggestions aiming to ensure security and
stability in the GCC member states,” Al-Omar told the Gulf News
daily, underscoring the ”urgency and significance of adopting
shared positions and policies” between GCC members Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE and Oman.

The programme will undergo a final review in an upcoming
meeting between GCC interior ministers in Bahrain.

The ministry undersecretary of the small oil-rich
archipelago, Khalid Al-Absi, underscored that the extraordinary
session would decide on the implementation of measures against
the Lebanese Shiite party Hezbollah, which Gulf countries
inserted into the list of terrorist organisations over the
summer.

Bahrain, which has a Shiite-majority population but is
governed by a Sunni royal family, was the first GCC country to
declare Hezbollah a terrorist organisation in March, prohibiting
all political entities from having any contact with it.

Due to the country’s religious composition, Bahrain – the
only GCC country to have been hit by the wave of ”Arab
Springs” – considers Hezbollah and its largest supporter, Iran,
to be extremely dangerous threats to its domestic security. The
condemnation of the group, however, came amid the conflict in
Syria and Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s vow to ”stay
until the very end”.

A programme of shared measures to be brought in
homogeneously is the final phase of a plan for integrated
defence between GCC countries.

The ”security pact” – which does not include national
police forces – has bolstered coordination between the
countries’ secret services and their operations and was signed
in November last year.

The Peninsula Shield, a joint armed force intending to act
as a deterrent and to respond to any attacks or threats to the
security of any GCC member state, was created in 1984.

The force took action for the first time in 2011, when
Bahrain asked for help during protests in its Pearl Square.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait sent forces to help the
government quell the protests. (ANSAmed).