Saudi King Abdullah warned on Saturday that the situation in the Middle East -- from the Palestinian territories to the Gulf -- was potentially explosive and likened it to a powder keg.
"Our Arab region is surrounded by dangers," said the monarch at the opening of a summit for leaders of the oil-rich Arab Gulf countries. "It is like a keg of gunpowder waiting for a spark to explode."
Palestinians were fighting among themselves, and Iraq "is about to slip into the darkness of strife and mad struggle," and so is Lebanon, King Abdullah said.
Following the Saudi monarch's speech, the leaders began a closed session.
The summit will discuss how to head off escalating dangers that threaten to spill over into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including the spiraling sectarian violence in Iraq and the nuclear standoff that pits a defiant Iran against the West.
The two-day GCC meeting in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, is also expected to discuss a US advisory panel's recent report and recommendations on Iraq, a Saudi diplomat said, speaking on customary condition of anonymity.
The GCC is a political and economic alliance gathering Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
The Iraq Study Group, the bipartisan US commission, released a report on Wednesday that called for the US to engage Syria and Iran in a diplomatic effort to stabilize Iraq.
Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned earlier this week that Iraq "poses a great challenge to the region, its security and its future" and called for "halting all forms of interference in Iraq" -- an apparent reference to Syria and Iran.
Each has ties with the major groups involved in Iraq's sectarian violence.
Iran has influence with Shiite Muslim parties that dominate the US-backed government and have militias blamed for much of the sectarian bloodshed.
Syria has links to Sunni Arabs, the main force in the insurgency, as the temporary home to many who have fled Iraq.
But both Iran and Syria deny supporting violence in Iraq. Iran Tehran is close to Shiite Muslim parties that dominate the government, while Damascus has ties to Sunni Arabs, their main rivals for power.
But Damascus and Tehran both deny US and Iraqi accusations that they support Arab insurgents and Shiite fighters operating in Iraq.
Kuwaiti columnist Youssef al-Rashed wrote Saturday he was alarmed by suggestions made by the Iraq Study Group because they could negatively affect his and other Gulf nations.
"If the US is unable to manage the situation [in Iraq] shrewdly, any sudden or premature pullout would result in a security vacuum that would affect us all," al-Rashed wrote in Kuwait's al-Anba daily.
Kuwaitis have expressed fears that the increasing Sunni-Shiite bloodshed in Iraq could spill over to their country that has a 30 percent Shiite minority. Similar concerns are shared by Saudi Arabia, which is up to 15 percent Shiite, and Bahrain, the tiny island kingdom ruled by Sunnis but with a Shiite majority.
Gulf countries also say they're worried about Iran's disputed nuclear program.
Iran is in a standoff with the West over refusing to suspend uranium enrichment.
The US and some allies allege Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons, and are pressing for sanctions against the Shiite Muslim country.
But Iran insists its program is for peaceful purposes, and its President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly vowed to press on with enrichment.
The Persian nation's first reactor in Bushehr -- across the Gulf from Saudi Arabia -- is projected to go on line late next year.
Eleven people, including a former minister, were arrested in Serbia on Friday over a train station disaster in which 16 people died. The concrete canopy of the newly renovated station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed on Nov. 1, 2024 in a disaster widely blamed on corruption and poor oversight. It sparked a wave of student-led protests and led to the resignation of then-Serbian prime minister Milos Vucevic and the fall of his government. The public prosecutor’s office in Novi Sad opened an investigation into the accident and deaths. In February, the public prosecutor’s office for organized crime opened another probe into
RISING RACISM: A Japanese group called on China to assure safety in the country, while the Chinese embassy in Tokyo urged action against a ‘surge in xenophobia’ A Japanese woman living in China was attacked and injured by a man in a subway station in Suzhou, China, Japanese media said, hours after two Chinese men were seriously injured in violence in Tokyo. The attacks on Thursday raised concern about xenophobic sentiment in China and Japan that have been blamed for assaults in both countries. It was the third attack involving Japanese living in China since last year. In the two previous cases in China, Chinese authorities have insisted they were isolated incidents. Japanese broadcaster NHK did not identify the woman injured in Suzhou by name, but, citing the Japanese
RESTRUCTURE: Myanmar’s military has ended emergency rule and announced plans for elections in December, but critics said the move aims to entrench junta control Myanmar’s military government announced on Thursday that it was ending the state of emergency declared after it seized power in 2021 and would restructure administrative bodies to prepare for the new election at the end of the year. However, the polls planned for an unspecified date in December face serious obstacles, including a civil war raging over most of the country and pledges by opponents of the military rule to derail the election because they believe it can be neither free nor fair. Under the restructuring, Myanmar’s junta chief Min Aung Hlaing is giving up two posts, but would stay at the
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
RSS