Iran's role in islands' row with UAE regretted WikiLeaks created misunderstandings: Attiyah ABU DHABI: Leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have called for “drying up” funding for terrorist organizations. In a joint communique Tuesday at the end of their annual summit here, the leaders “stressed the importance of working toward drying up sources of funding for terrorist groups and foiling their criminal aims” and urged the prevention of “media from publishing anything that would encourage these criminal acts.” The communique said the GCC was monitoring with “utmost concern” developments in Iran's disputed nuclear program and issued a thinly veiled warning to their Persian neighbor not to meddle in their internal affairs. Leaders from United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman said they wanted the dispute over Iran's nuclear program to be resolved through “peaceful means” and make the Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction. “The GCC followed developments in the Iranian nuclear file with the utmost concern and stresses again the importance of commitment to the principles of international legitimacy and the resolution of conflicts through peaceful means,” said the communique. The communique also expressed the six leaders' “regret” about what they said was Iran's lack of response to efforts to resolve a dispute between the Persian nation and the UAE over three strategically located Gulf islands controlled by Iran. In its statement, the GCC threw its support behind the Palestinians' refusal to negotiate with Israel without a settlement moratorium, stressing any freeze on construction should include East Jerusalem as well as the West Bank. On Iraq, it said restoration of security and stability required “the completion of total national reconciliation ... for solidifying the principle of a partnership between the parties and political forces.” Meanwhile, GCC Secretary General Abdulrahman Al-Attiyah said leaks from WikiLeaks have created “misunderstandings” and they “cannot be taken seriously.” “These links... created a kind of misunderstanding about the information,” Attiyah said, adding that “these kind of sites cannot be reliable or credible sources.” “We cannot take seriously the things in what was said,” Attiyah said in response to a question on WikiLeaks at a news conference at the end of the summit. Also on Tuesday, Abdullateef Al-Zayani was appointed as the new secretary general of the GCC replacing Al-Attiyah, the higher council of the Gulf bloc announced. Saudi Arabia is to host the next GCC summit in December 2011.
