Arab Parliament Chief wants GCC to act as a single body

"We are standing at borderline with Iran and it’s time for the GCC to act as one body," said Head of the Arab Parliament Syed Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Jarwan.

He was speaking to media on the sidelines of the second conference on “Human Rights in GCC Countries” at the Gulf Hotel yesterday.

The second annual conference on human rights was held under the patronage of Parliament Chairman Ahmed Al Mulla, in which the human rights bodies from Arab League, GCC and NGOs, MPs, diplomats, academics, lawyers and a large number of media representatives from all over the Arab world were present.

“If Iran respects the neighbourly relations, we will do the same. If it does not, then certain reactions will come from our sides. We will be forced to put embargoes on Iran,” he stated.

He also accused Iran of interfering into the internal affairs of all the GCC countries.

He alleged that not only has Iran done anything in support of the Arab nations, but it has been trying to destroy the same. 

He condemned all the atrocities that happened in Yemen, Syria and Iraq under the influence of the Iranian government.

“All these problems are the result of the Iranian interference. When Iran interferes, atrocities happen, people die, the women are widowed and the children are orphaned,” he added.

He said they needed to put in place new ways of shielding the people. “For that, we have to train our police and military to protect the people from what is happening to them,” he said.

Speaking on the occasion, Al Mulla stated the international community was not helping Bahrain to tackle the issue of human rights violations in the GCC.

MP Anas Buhendi told DT News that the main purpose of this conference was to tell the world that the governments and the people of the GCC countries were interested in the human rights.

 “We want to tell the United Nations that there are some countries in the gulf region that are violating the UN human rights regulations, especially in Yemen, Syria and Iraq and nobody is stopping them,” he said.

He accused such violating countries for killing Sunnis, and even people with Sunni names, for religious motives.

Chairperson of ‘Together for Human Rights’ Dr Mona Hejres said the main focus of the conference is on the challenges that the GCC area was facing, especially the security issues.

She said that they needed to educate the people about the human rights and it should start from the homes with children.

Dr Hejres said the main objective of the programme was to bring all the concerned parties at one platform and ask them to share their opinions about the human rights issues.

Photo: MP Jamal Buhassan receiving award from Al Mulla for highlighting the rights of the common people