GCC to weigh measures against Syria

Source: Khaleej Times (Read full story)

Foreign ministers of the Gulf countries will meet on Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss measures against Syria, as Washington drums up support for its plan to strike Damascus, a diplomat said.  Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council “support taking international measures to deter the Syrian regime,” the diplomat told AFP on Monday. The ministers will meet in Saudi’s western port city of Jeddah. The GCC, which comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has openly voiced support for the rebellion against President Bashar Al Assad.  On Saturday, GCC chief Abdullatif Al Zayani urged the international community to intervene immediately to “rescue” the Syrian people from their government’s “oppression”.

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Syria crisis: Arabs, US on same page

Source: Arab News (Read full story)

US Secretary of State John Kerry said Sunday that Arab League ministers had agreed at talks in Paris that Syria crossed a “global red line” in its alleged chemical weapons attack. Kerry said a number of Arab countries were willing to sign a statement agreed by 12 countries of the G-20 that called for a reaction to the alleged attack, and that they would make announcements in the next 24 hours. “All of us agree, not one dissenter, that Assad’s deplorable use of chemical weapons… crosses an international global red line,” Kerry told journalists after the talks.

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The Arab D-Day

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Given the overwhelming evidence of the Assad regime’s extreme, unrelenting brutality, a peaceful transition appears highly unlikely. Force must be used. Yet it should not be the same kind of force the West has used for centuries across the Arab world; those interventions have left the region a shambles and fueled resentment of Western imperialism. Armed intervention in Syria must come from within the Arab world, it must be multinational, and it must be organized. Only the Arab League can fulfill these conditions. Many Arabs across the Middle East and North Africa believe that their governments must now assume the solemn mantle of collective leadership for the sake of the Syrian people.

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The rail network, which will be developed in three phases, is also part of the wider GCC railway network that aims to connect all the six Gulf states. “The plan is to connect the entire GCC region by 2018,” said Al Nuaimi. “However, in the UAE, we are probably ahead of the other states. Oman announced last week that it will be launching its railway network by 2017 and hence that would expedite our connection with Oman. “Saudi’s railway development is also in the pipeline – they have started the implementation process. We are hopeful that by 2018, it will be completed,” he added. Details such as immigration, customs and other logistical matters are currently being discussed by a GCC-wide committee to ensure that all the systems are in place, said Nazim bin Taher, acting director general of NTA.

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Oman recorded the second lowest inflation rate among the GCC states at 1.5 per cent in July this year, against 2.9 per cent for the same period last year, according to the monthly statistical bulletin issued by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI). The easing of inflation rate in the Sultanate is being attributed to softening of commodity prices in overseas markets, especially for agricultural products, and slack growth in domestic liquidity.  Among the GCC states, the United Arab Emirates came first with 1.26 per cent inflation, while Saudi Arabia recorded the highest rate of inflation at 3.7 per cent. This was followed by Bahrain at 3.6 per cent, Qatar at 3.1 per cent, and Kuwait at 2.87 per cent. A recent report issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) indicated a drop in the average food price index in July 2013 by two per cent from the levels in June 2013.

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