His Highness The Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-ahmad Al-jaber Al-sabah In Saudi Arabia For Gcc Summit

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and his accompanying delegation arrived to Saudi Arabia on Thursday, to head Kuwait in the urgent GCC, Arab League summits and the 14th session of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) summit in Makkah.

His Highness was received by governor of Makkah area Prince Khaled Bin Faisal Al-Saud, Kuwait’s National Assembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim, GCC Secretary-General Abdulatif Al-Zayani, OIC Secretary General Youssef Bin Al-Othaimeen, Saudi Ambassador to the State of Kuwait and head of the mission of honor assigned to His Highness, Prince Sultan Bin Saad Bin Khaled Al-Saud, as well as Kuwait’s Ambassador to the Kingdom Sheikh Ali Al-Khaled Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.

Saudi Arabia prepared to hold emergency Arab summits on Thursday to deliver a strong message to Iran over regional security after attacks on Gulf oil assets this month as American officials said a US military deployment had deterred Tehran.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have lobbied Washington to contain foe Shi’ite Muslim Iran, have said they want to avoid war after drone strikes on oil pumping stations in the Kingdom and the sabotage of tankers off the UAE.

Riyadh accused Tehran of ordering the drone strikes, which were claimed by Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi group. US national security adviser John Bolton said on Thursday that evidence of Iran being behind the tanker attacks would be presented to the United Nations Security Council as early as next week. Tehran denies any involvement in either one.

Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Assaf said ahead of the two late night summits of Sunni Muslim Gulf leaders and Arab leaders, that the attacks must be addressed with “strength and firmness”. “While summit leaders are likely to discuss how best to avoid a war, King Salman is equally determined to defend Saudi and Arab interests amid increasing tensions between the US and Iran,” Prince Turki al-Faisal, former Saudi intelligence chief and envoy, wrote in an opinion piece published by Al Arabiya.

Tensions have risen between the United States and Iran after Washington quit a multinational nuclear deal with Iran, re-imposed sanctions and boosted its military presence in the Gulf. Bolton has said that Iranian mines were “almost certainly” used in the tanker attacks, which he described as being connected to the strike on pumping stations on the Kingdom’s East-West pipeline and a rocket attack on Baghdad’s Green Zone. An Iranian official dismissed Bolton’s remarks as “a ludicrous claim”. The Islamic Republic has said it would defend itself against any military or economic aggression.

Assets 
Bolton and the US special envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, told reporters on Thursday that a repositioning of US military assets in the region had succeeded in deterring Iran. Bolton, speaking in London, said it would be a big mistake if Iran or its surrogates in the region attacked US interests. Hook told a news conference call that the United States would respond with military force if that happens.

Last week the Pentagon announced the deployment of 900 additional troops to the Middle East and extended the stay of another 600 service members, after speeding up deployment of an aircraft carrier strike group and sending bombers and additional Patriot missiles.

The United States and the UAE, which hosts a US air base, on Wednesday activated a defence cooperation agreement signed earlier this year. Gulf states have a joint defence force under the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), but the 39-year-old alliance has been fractured by a dispute that has seen Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and non- GCC Egypt impose a political and economic boycott on Qatar since mid-2017. Saudi King Salman invited Qatar’s ruler, whose country is home to the largest US military base in the region, to the summits. Doha is sending Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser Al Thani, the highest level Qatari official to visit the Kingdom since the rift. Iraq and Oman, which have good ties with Tehran and Washington, have said they are working to reduce tensions.

Doha, which shares a giant gas field with Iran, has offered to help. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on a trip to Iraq this month that Tehran wanted balanced ties with Gulf neighbours and had proposed signing a non-aggression pact with them. UAE newspaper Gulf News said in an editorial, which are usually state-approved, that the offer was “bizarre” and that Gulf states were not buying Iran’s “’nice neighbour’ routine”.

OIC
Chief OIC Secretary-General Dr Yusuf Al-Othaimeen said Wednesday Islamic countries should intensify consultations vis-a-vis critical challenges, which undermined regional and international security and stability. Al-Othaimeen, addressing OIC’s Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Jeddah, said terrorism and extremism were undermining regional and global peace and stability. He said terrorist groups were using political instabilities in the countries to carry out their terrorist acts.

Al-Othaimeen called for creating a clear mechanism to confront religious extremism and encourage dialogue among faiths. He said Israel was neglecting international treaties, a matter that required further efforts to put an end to the suffering of the Palestinian people.

Al-Othaimeen called for solving confl icts in Yemen, Somalia, Libya and Syria. He said the OIC should work within a comprehensive strategy taking into consideration all security, economic, cultural, social and intellectual aspects related to causes of extremism and terrorism. Saudi Foreign Minister Ibrahim Al-Assaf called on Islamic countries to unite against regional and continental challenges, including against Iranian-backed Houthi militias and towards helping the resolution of confl icts in Syria, Libya and Sudan.

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