RIYADH, March 28: President Pervez Musharraf warned on Wednesday that rising tensions in the oil-rich Gulf risk leading to a confrontation that could affect the entire world.

“Tensions in the Gulf region are shaping an ominous confrontation that could have incalculable consequences globally, regionally and among the Muslim Umma,” Musharraf told an Arab summit in Riyadh in a reference to Iran's standoff with the West over its controversial nuclear programme.

“We cannot remain helpless spectators in this and other crises and conflicts afflicting the Islamic world,” said Musharraf, one of several world figures invited to the summit's opening session.

“We need to join hands to work for solutions on the basis of fairness, justice and realism.”

Musharraf warned against the rise of extremism and sectarianism in the Islamic world.

“Apart from disputes and conflicts, Muslim countries are facing great danger in the rise of extremist and obscurantist thinking and tendencies,” he said.

“Sectarian and ethnic divisions are tearing the fabric of many of our societies and draining energies needed to ensure progress and development.”

—AFP