ABU DHABI, Dec 19: US-allied Arab leaders called on Monday for a nuclear weapons-free Middle East, singling out Israel as the biggest threat to the region. In a final statement, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) focused on Israel’s failure to join the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which Iran has signed.

Secretary-General Abdul Rahman al Attiya, who said on Sunday the meeting would call on Iran to shun nuclear arms, declined to explain why the statement did not mention Tehran.

But one Gulf official said it was because the GCC — which groups Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates — wanted to keep diplomatic channels open.

“They (GCC leaders) are very worried about Iran’s nuclear programme. They opted for diplomacy so as not to alienate Tehran,” the official said.

The GCC settled instead for a reiteration of a previous proposal to ‘turn the Middle East, including the Gulf, into an area free of weapons of mass destruction’.

The final statement said: “The council calls on Israel to join the NPT and to open its nuclear facilities to inspection by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It also calls on the international community to press Israel to do so.”

UAE Foreign Minister Rashid Abdullah al Nuaimi said Gulf countries were ‘extremely worried and concerned’ by Iran’s Bushehr nuclear plant, adding that if anything went wrong there it would cause extensive damage to neighbouring countries.

—Reuters