Gulf defense ministers: No forces for Iraq

Defense ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states met yesterday in Kuwait in order to discuss their regional defense strategy and means of enhancing their common force and they decided not to send Gulf forces to Iraq.

The Kuwaiti minister of defense Sheikh Jaber al-Mubarak al-Sabah said in an inaugural speech of the meeting " we do hope that the meeting will seek to support the unwavering steps to build defense strategies for our countries.. achieving preparedness and efficiency and complete readiness to deter foreign aggression."

Al-Sabah also called for enhancing the forces of "'al-Jazeera shield' to be a preventive shield and a sword to our country under these critical conditions our region is passing through." The secretary general of the GCC Abdul Rahman al-Ateyah said he expects an acceleration of the pace of military cooperation between members of the council which owns since 1986 a joint force of 5,000 troops positioned in Hafer al-Batten to the northern East of Saudi Arabia near the Iraqi borders.

The Saudi minister of defense prince Abdul Rahman Bin Abdul Aziz said that no Saudi initiative is so far there to send Islamic forces to Iraq " as this initiative was debated before and no longer debated now." For his part, al-Ateyah said that there is no intention in the GCC member states to send forces to Iraq being from al-Jazeera Sheild force or any of the GCC member states, adding that the responsibility of preserving security in Iraq falls on the occupation to maintain security and stability.