GCC ministerial council meet in Riyadh

The 130th ordinary session of the Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) opened here today under the chairmanship of Kuwait’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.The meeting was attended GCC Secretary General of the GCC Dr. Abdullatif Al Zayani. The GCC Foreign Ministerial Council Tuesday welcomed UN Security Council resolution 2139, which called for lifting siege on Syrian cities, halting raids on civilians and facilitating passage of humanitarian convoys. The council, at the end of its one-day meeting called on all UN Security Council members to exercise more pressure upon the Syrian regime to abide by resolution 2139 in order to alleviate suffering of the Syrian people. The Council regretted the failure of the Geneva II conference to have concrete results that would have ended suffering of the Syrian people. It said the Syrian regime must implement the communique of the Geneva I, which called for a political transition in the troubled country.The Foreign Ministers welcomed outcome of the second donors conference for the Syrian people, which was held in Kuwait last January 15, as well as hailing results of the Friends of Syria meeting in Paris on January 13.Thy condemned the “irresponsible” statements by some Iranian officials against the Kingdom of Bahrain, considering them blatant violations in Bahrain’s internal affairs. They said relations with Iran should be based on good neighborliness, non-interference in internal affairs, respecting of sovereignty of regional countries and refraining from use of force.On Iran’s nuclear program, the ministerial council called for compliance with the interim agreement signed between Tehran and the P5+1 group in Geneva on November 24, 2013 in order to brush aside the concerns over the controversial program.