Crown Prince Abdullah calls for unity and self-reliance at GCC Summit

Deputy Prime Minister and Commander of the National Guard Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdulaziz led the Saudi Arabian delegation to the 22nd summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in Muscat, Oman, and in his address to the meeting on December 30, 2001, called on all Arabs to come together in their condemnation of terrorism, advocated greater self-reliance in resolving the problems facing the Arab world, and urged greater political and economic unification of the GCC.

Greeting leaders from the other five member states of the GCC - Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates - in the name of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Fahd bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Abdullah said he had hoped that the summit would have taken place under better circumstances than those faced by the Arab and Islamic worlds.

“Affliction and catastrophes are in fact opportunities and challenges that make it incumbent upon us to conduct self-scrutiny, review our attitudes and repair errors so that we can emerge stronger than we were,” he said. “The real and deadly risk is to face crises with hands folded and without spirit, and blame others instead of confronting the crises and taking responsibility for our role. Changing such a painful reality is not possible without changing ourselves.”

Referring to the terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11, Crown Prince Abdullah said: “Our Arab and Muslim community has suffered severe harm as a result of the actions of murderers who have invoked the name of Islam, when Islam is totally innocent of their deeds. They claimed to support the Arab and Muslim community, but that community was a victim of their evil actions. It is the duty of all Muslims today to forcefully and unequivocally condemn all acts of terror without hesitation, and to denounce whoever supports terrorists in word or deed. It is also their duty to point out the vast difference between the claims of terrorists, and the legitimate struggles of any people for self-determination.”

Pointing out that Islam is a religion of tolerance and love, Crown Prince Abdullah said the killing of an innocent person is strongly condemned in Islam, quoting a verse from the Holy Qur’an that says, If anyone kills a person not in retaliation for murder, but to spread mischief in the land, this is as if he killed all mankind.

“Islam also calls for dealing with others through kind dialogue,” he added. “This is the Islamic approach, even with enemies.”

Crown Prince Abdullah spoke of the Israeli violence that has resulted in the death of many Palestinians and the destruction of the homes and properties of many more. “These painful scenes compel the Arab and Muslim worlds to face up to their historical responsibility with self-criticism and a need to provide answers to urgent and serious questions that have thus far been avoided,” he said.

“What have we done with regard to the noble principles of the Arab League? What have we done to put the Joint Defense Treaty into effect? What have we done to realize economic unity? And most important of all, would the bloody oppression in Palestine have taken place had Israel found itself confronted by a community acting effectively and strongly through its institutional bodies? By finding answers to these questions we will put ourselves on the right track to realizing our true objectives.”

He added that for decades, the Arab and Islamic worlds have wasted time in soliciting the help of foreign countries and international organizations, and in condemning atrocities committed against them. Instead, Crown Prince Abdullah said, “We should spend our time and efforts in a fruitful manner, and we should dedicate such efforts to self-criticism, thus avoiding repeating our previous mistakes. We should concentrate all our efforts on putting the Arab and Muslim house in order, so that we become better prepared to face challenges.

“I believe we are stating facts if we admit that all of us, without exception, have erred against our great community, not only when we allowed our Arab and Muslim relations to be based on skepticism and suspicion instead of openness and frankness, but also when we have sought the help of foreigners, and forgotten our brothers: not only when we opened our homes and markets to the commodities of others while closing them to those of the Arabs and Muslims, but also when we allowed ourselves to attribute our setbacks to foreign conspiracies and a colonization that still lives in the mind.”

Crown Prince Abdullah said the Arab and Muslim worlds “have no need for extraordinary summits that issue rhetorical and emotional statements. What we need are summits that probe and analyze, that issue rational and realistic resolutions that can be executed according to reasonable timetables. However, we still have the opportunity to diagnose and rectify the ailment which I believe we all agree on, namely the separation that has created distance between brothers and neighbors. I believe that the remedy is effective cooperation and unity.

“We have always striven for unity, but failed when we tied our hopes to symbolic constitutional arrangements that led nowhere. The progress of our unity must learn from its past errors, and should benefit from other successful attempts to unite. Real unity does not stand on formalities, but on joint economic projects, on unified school curricula that breed a generation of young people able to deal with new variables, and on Arab and Muslim channels that address our own problems.”

Turning to the GCC in particular, Crown Prince Abdullah said the six-nation bloc had not yet accomplished its projected aspirations. “For over 20 years, the progress of the GCC has been very slow when compared with the pace of the modern age. However, honesty requires us to admit that the GCC member states have been able to make good achievements, chief among them the resolution of most of the lingering border disputes. Still, we have not yet created a military force capable of confronting enemies and supporting friends, we have not yet achieved a unified economic market and we have not yet been able to forge a unified political position with which to face political crises.”

Crown Prince Abdullah added: “Our adherence to an exaggerated concept of sovereignty is the main obstacle to our endeavors for unity. Granting more prerogatives to the GCC does not mean breaching our independence as much as it means enhancing and solidifying it. It will also contribute to greater Arab and Muslim unity in terms of position, orientation and objectives. The example of the European Union is a model to follow.  The task of unifying our ranks is our main duty in both the near and distant future, but the exceptional circumstances of today require exceptional actions in order to deal with them.”

On the political scene, Crown Prince Abdullah said, the world is faced with grave developments that the GCC cannot influence unless the member states analyze them with a common mindset and address them with one voice.