US Secretary of State John Kerry called yesterday for all efforts to be applied to maintain the cessation of hostilities in Syria and build momentum for peace talks.
“We will need to apply all of our efforts in order to maintain not only the cessation of hostilities but to build some possible momentum in the negotiations themselves,” Kerry said in a statement after talks with his foreign ministers from the six-member Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) in Manama.
Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said in a separate statement that Gulf Arab states rejected the intervention of Iran into the affairs of the GCC states and what he called its attempts to smuggle weapons into some GCC states.
“If Iran continues its aggressive policies and continues to intervene into the affairs of the GCC states, it will be difficult to deal with Iran,” he added.
Kerry also urged Iran to help end the wars raging in Yemen and Syria, criticising the Islamic republic’s “destabilising actions” in the Middle East.
Speaking during a joint news conference with Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifah, Kerry condemned “the destabilising actions of Iran, which the US takes very seriously”.
Kerry said the US Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, last week interrupted a shipment of weapons destined for Houthi rebels in Yemen.
“We call on Iran to constructively join in the efforts to make peace and to help us to resolve Syria and rather than to continue to send weapons to Houthis, join in the effort... to make peace and to work toward a cessation of hostilities,” Kerry told reporters.
Tehran and the Gulf states back opposition sides in Syria and Yemen.
Last year Iran struck a landmark deal with world powers scaling back its nuclear programme, which has led to the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic republic.
The US Treasury last month imposed financial sanctions on Iran’s Republican Guards, who conducted ballistic missile tests over March 8-9.
“The US and the GCC countries remain united in our opposition to Iran’s missile activities but we say very clearly to Iran... that we’re prepared to work a new arrangement to find a peaceful solution to these issues,” Kerry said.
Sheikh Khalid, whose government accuses Iran of stoking persistent protests among the kingdom’s Shias, echoed Kerry’s call for Iran to co-operate.
Iran’s “interventions through proxies in several parts of our region (are) continuing unabated,” the Bahraini foreign minister said.
All the Gulf Arab states, apart from Oman, are taking part in a Saudi-led coalition that has been battling Iran-backed rebels in Yemen since March last year, in a war which the UN says has killed around 6,300 people.
Yemen’s warring parties have agreed to observe a UN-brokered ceasefire from midnight Sunday to be followed by peace negotiations in Kuwait on April 18.
Kerry will also discuss the situation in Iraq, Lebanon, and elsewhere in the region during his meeting with Gulf foreign ministers, a US official said.
Qatari FM takes part in GCC-US talks
Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani participated in the joint meeting of foreign ministers of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) with US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday in Manama, in preparation for the US-GCC summit to be held in Riyadh on April 21. During the meeting, they discussed co-operation relations between the GCC countries and the US within the framework of the strategic partnership between the two sides. Discussions also dealt with and the results of the working groups at the GCC-US summit, which was held in May 2015 at Camp David, as well as the latest developments particularly in Syria, Yemen, Iraq and Libya, besides efforts to combat terrorism and regional and international issues of common interest.
Qatar’s delegation to the meeting included HE Assistant Foreign Minister for Foreign Affairs, and a number of officials at the Foreign Ministry.
Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs HE Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani with US Secretary of State John Kerry and his GCC counterparts in Manama yesterday.
