March 06, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 16, 1428

ABU DHABI: Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) oppose any attack on Iran over its nuclear programme, the head of the regional grouping said on Monday. “We reject any escalation of the crisis relative to this dossier (that could) lead to a military confrontation that could have negative consequences and lead to catastrophe,” Abdul Rahman al-Attiya said.

“A political solution to the crisis over the Iranian nuclear dossier still has a chance,” the GCC secretary-general said at the start of a conference on Gulf security in Abu Dhabi.

The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

GCC member states have in the past voiced concern about an eventual air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities and the potentially catastrophic environmental consequences.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told a meeting of his GCC counterparts in Riyadh that the greatest threat facing the region was Shia-Sunni tensions like those seen in

Iraq.

“The crises we see at the moment ... have generated new problems for the Arab and Islamic nation, of which the most dangerous lies in fanning the flames of sectarianism and of the strife between Sunnis and Shias,” he said.—AFP