Security conference urges keeping Gulf region away from sectarianism

The just-ended "Kuwait and Regional Security Conference" called Tuesday for underlining commonality among the peoples of the Gulf region in order to defuse sectarian tensions.
The gathering, organized by Kuwait University (KU) and the UK Durham University at KU College of Social Sciences, warned that extremists, posing as Islamists, harm the interests of their nations and mar the image of Islam in non-Muslim countries.
The conferees highlighted the need of drawing up a strategy for addressing this challenge taking stock of the cultural, ideological and financial dimensions, the event's general coordinator Dr. Hamed Al-Abdullah said at the closing session.
The world is undergoing a process of restructuring and moves towards multi-polarization which requires that the Gulf States to adapt to the changes in a way that could protect their security and stability, he pointed out.
The conferees advised the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states to develop a single system for reactivation of their strategic dialogues with Russia and China while maintaining their bilateral security agreements with the US and Europe.
"They also highlighted the need of opening a strategic dialogue with Iran on the security and development issues in order to build confidence between both shores of the Arabian Gulf and serve their common interests," Dr. Al-Abdullah pointed out.
"They called for closer ties between Kuwait and Iraq and building conference between the two neighbors based on the new security challenges and taking stock of the popular diplomacy and the role of and visit exchanges in this regard," he noted.
On economic development, the conference called for diversifying the sources of income and reducing reliance on oil revenues with a view to attaining sustainable development, Dr. Al-Abdullah went on.
"The conferees called on OPEC to double efforts to arrange the oil policies of its member countries in order to tackle the rising tendencies among the industrialized countries to reduce reliance on Gulf oil supplies.
"They called on Kuwait to adopt a new policy for maintaining the food security in the long run amid the declining oil prices through investment in overseas farm projects and developing a national food parcel," Dr. Al-Abdullah affirmed.
The conference stressed the need of advancing the human development the in the GCC countries, restoring balance in their demographic structures, promoting educational development and encouraging the mass media role in promoting the true values of Islam and the culture of tolerance, he added.