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Riyadh: The proposal for setting up of an International Centre for Combating Terrorism is on top of the agenda of the GCC Interior Ministers meeting scheduled to be held in Abu Dhabi next Tuesday. The meeting, to be held under the chairmanship of UAE Interior Minister Lieutenant General Shaikh Saif Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will discuss major security issues concerning the Gulf states. A GCC security source told Gulf News the meeting will discuss ways to activate the mechanism for effectively implementing the agreement for the establishment of the centre to confront terrorist threats as well as dangers posed to the security of the GCC states. The recent Riyadh GCC summit had agreed to establish the centre based in Bahrain and asked the interior ministers to study details of its establishment at their forthcoming Abu Dhabi meeting.
The centre, first proposed by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, is mainly aimed at exchanging information with regard to any possible terrorist attacks in order to avert them. At least 50 countries, which participated in the International Conference on Terror in Riyadh in February 2005, had supported the proposal. The ministers will also review a number of other related security matters, such as fighting drug trafficking and traffic and civil defence issues. According to the source, the meeting will discuss the deteriorating situation in Iraq and its impact on the neighbouring GCC States. "The ministers will look into effective ways to prevent a possible infiltration of Iraqi militants and foreign fighters into their countries," he said while voicing concern of the GCC states over the alarming situation in Iraq. Meanwhile, the number of GCC citizens being detained in Iraq rose to 60 since the beginning of the US invasion, and these included 45 Saudis, according to the latest reports of the human rights organisations. "Most of the Saudi detainees are being held in prisons under the Iraqi Ministry of Interior. The detainees are being subjected to inhuman treatment and torture. They are living in precarious conditions and have been denied the right to hire lawyers to plead their case," Saudi local press reports said, quoting an international human rights source. According to the source, most of the Saudi detainees have had no links with the ongoing violence. On the other hand, they have either their parents or other close relatives living in Iraq. They have been detained by the US forces when they arrived there in search of their kith and kin, the source said. The centre is mainly aimed at exchanging information with regard to any possible terrorist attacks.
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