In the Name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful

Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and prayers and peace be upon the most honourable of messengers, our master Muhammad and his family and companions,

Your Excellencies, Ministers of Interior in the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council States,

Your Excellency, Dr Abdul Latif Al Zayani, General Secretary of the Arab Gulf Cooperation Council,

Our brethren, members of the participating delegations,

May peace and the mercy of Allah be upon you,

I am glad to welcome you in to your second home, Qatar, among your family and relatives, and convey to you the warmest regards of His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar (May Allah protect him). He sends his best wishes for our convention to achieve the safety and pride our peoples aspire to.

My brethren, your excellencies,

The journey of joint security cooperation activities between our nations has in recent years continued to set an example to be followed thanks to all of the achievements it has realised. Now, we have the opportunity through this convention to further share ideas and unify views concerning issues of mutual interest, and establish a future vision of the challenges faced by security administrations in the GCC States. At the forefront of these challenges is terrorism, one of the most dangerous crimes facing GCC states as well as the entire contemporary world. This dangerous vice has plagued some of our nations, such as the recent terrorist explosion that struck the village of Karanah in our friend, the Kingdom of Bahrain. The attack resulted in the injury of two police officers. We have expressed our position in support of the Kingdom of Bahrain against acts of violence which target the safety and stability not only of Bahrain, but all Arab Gulf nations.

Furthermore, we have discussed the establishment of a joint GCC blacklist for terrorist organisations and individuals, which has been prepared by a specialised committee, as well as the criteria and regulations for including organisations and individuals on this list. This led us to approve these regulations and hasten the implementation process in order to fend off terror threats and activities targeting GCC states, both at home and abroad, in addition to pursuing wanted individuals and those implicated in acts of terrorism.

Your Excellencies,

Events taking place in our region and the serious repercussions they entail are quite apparent to all of us. Perhaps our meeting with His Royal Highness, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud, King of Saudi Arabia, last March, where we discussed these issues and his wise recommendations are the best proof of GCC leaders’ understanding of the gravity of the situation that surrounds us. This is especially applicable with respect to the deteriorating situation in Yemen, which now threatens international peace and security.

This leads us to observe caution and increase coordination in several domains – security in particular – in order to spare our societies the negative repercussions of these events.

Brethren,

I would finally like to commend the significant efforts made by the GCC General Secretariat, led by His Excellency Dr Abdul Latif Al Zayani (General Secretary of the GCC) and the General Secretariat employees for preparing this conference.

I once again welcome you to Doha, wish you an enjoyable
stay, and ask Allah to bless our intentions and efforts to raise up and develop our peoples and keep us on the righteous path.

For He is the best to protect and the best to help,

May peace and mercy of Allah be upon you.