CAMP DAVID // The security of the Gulf region is essential to global stability and security, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, has said.
Speaking at the Camp David summit this week, Sheikh Mohammed, who is also Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, said the UAE and other GCC states “are quite aware of the size of responsibility on their shoulders to maintain the integrity and vitality of the region”.
Sheikh Mohammed headed the UAE delegation at the talks between GCC leaders and US president Barack Obama to discuss rising security threats to the region following the rise of militant extremism and Iran’s attempts to expand its influence.
“This important historical stage requires all of us in the Gulf Cooperation Council to cooperate with our friends by developing a framework of cooperation to serve mutual interests and establish a new stage that takes into account the new threats and challenges,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
The US is “a key strategic partner for the GCC and has vital role in maintaining the security and stability in the region, given its global weight, central role, and mutual interests between the two sides, as well as joint cooperation and close partnership”, he said.
“We have succeeded together through the constructive cooperation in the Arab coalition, and with the help of friends through Operation Restore Hope in Yemen, to abort the regional projects that sought to sow chaos, destruction and strife in the region,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
The UAE is part of the Saudi Arabia-led coalition that launched an air campaign against Iran-linked Houthi rebels in Yemen who have captured large areas of the country and forced the internationally recognised president to flee.
Given the region’s strategic importance, Sheikh Mohammed stressed the GCC position on the need to keep the Arabian Gulf safe from security threats in case the nuclear deal being negotiated by world powers with Tehran did not include “clear standards and commitments” to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions in the region and “its regional hegemony, as well as measures to prevent the proliferation of nuclear arms”.
He expressed confidence that the US would understand the GCC’s concerns “in light of the turmoil, sectarian conflicts and the spread of terrorist groups and their affiliated organisations”.
Sheikh Mohammed hailed the summit as a “qualitative genuine addition to the march of the GCC-US relations” that reflected the keenness to strengthen their strategic partnership.
* Wam