The 167th Ministerial Council of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) condemned on Wednesday the latest Iranian attacks against Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan as “flagrant violations against their sovereignty and security of their people.” Meeting in Manama, the council slammed the attacks as violations of international law, United Nations Charter and values of good neighborliness. “These hostile acts do not serve any understanding or rapprochement, but rather distance peoples from one another, undermine the foundations of trust, sow discord and close the doors of dialogue to which the GCC states have always called for,” it said in a statement. “Aggression does not build relations, and intimidation does not create stability,” it stressed, while expressing its full solidarity with Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan. “The security of the GCC states is indivisible, and that any attack against one of them is an attack against them all,” it went on to say. The council reassured the citizens of its states and residents on their territories that the joint defense capabilities and air defense systems are confronting these attacks with high efficiency and readiness, and that the leaderships of the GCC states are moving forward in safeguarding the security and stability of the region. “These attacks will only increase the cohesion, determination and resolve of the peoples of the GCC states to resist and confront them,” continued the statement. Moreover, it underscored the right of GCC states to defend themselves “individually and collectively, and to respond to this aggression by all legitimate means, in accordance with Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations, which guarantees the inherent right of states to defend themselves if an armed attack occurs against them.” “The council holds Iran fully responsible for these acts and their grave repercussions on the security of the region, international navigation and energy supplies, and demands their immediate cessation and a complete end to any targeting of the GCC states, their interests and their citizens,” urged the statement. The council called upon the Security Council and the international community to assume their responsibilities in condemning this aggression and holding its perpetrators accountable, in a manner that ensures respect for the sovereignty of states and the preservation of regional and international peace and security. The council, while renewing the GCC states’ commitment to the option of peace, good neighborliness and diplomatic solutions as a means of settling disputes, posed “a fundamental question to the aggressor: How can future relations be built amid the continuation of these attacks and the insistence on pursuing them?” “Persistence in the path of aggression will only lead to further isolation, while the door to understanding remains open to those who choose the language of wisdom and good neighborliness,” it added.
