There is commitment to have another GCC-US summit next year - Tillerson

WASHINGTON, May 21 (KUNA) -- US Secretary of State said Sunday that there is a "commitment" to have another GCC summit with the US "a year from now." Tillerson told Fox News network from Saudi Arabia that there is an "agreement to continue this dialogue; it doesn't end here. There is a commitment to have another GCC summit with the US a year from now," referring to the Arab-Islamic-US summit, which wrapped while earlier in Riyadh.
"One of the expectations is we will be measuring our project -- our progress towards the initiatives and agreements that were signed here. And we will be looking for concrete results by which to measure each country's commitments," he added.
The US top diplomat noted that US President Donald Trump has said "he has learned a lot on this trip (to Saudi Arabia) and he's learned a lot about the people, he's learned a lot about their culture." He added "I think it's a really important process in terms of how we move forward with this relationship between the Muslim world and the non-Muslim world." Tillerson affirmed "there's great recognition among all the leaders of the Muslim world that they have to take responsibility for what has happened in many respects. And they are taking responsibility. And they're ready to join with us and other nations in confronting this terrible face of terrorism." He stressed "today conditions in the region are under a lot of stress because of the threat of terrorism, the threat that Iran poses to instability in the region," saying "the primary reason we're here today is to confront this threat of terrorism.
"If we do not defeat (so-called Islamic State (IS) or) Daesh, if we do not defeat these forces of evil, there will be no conditions under which we can even hope to improve the human rights for all of the people in the region," he remarked.
He noted that "there are concrete commitments being made as to how we will work together to defeat Daesh, to defeat terrorism here in the region and as well as elsewhere." Meanwhile, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told ABC network that one of the goals of the trip is to "advance the security of the American people. And to recognize that to do that, America needs allies and partners to deal with the very complex problems that we are dealing with." He added "in this region, those are two main and interconnected problems, the problem of transnational terrorist organizations, some of which now, like (IS), control territory and populations and resources. But then how that problem is connected more broadly to the problem of Islamist extremism and the brainwashing of youths with really an irreligious ideology that is meant to foment hatred and justify violence against innocents." He said the second problem of Iran and Iran's actions across the region, "which we believe are aimed at keeping the Arab world perpetually weak and mired in a very destructive civil war. And you see that in Syria, you see it in Yemen as well. You see it to a certain extent in Iraq.
"The third is to foster better defense cooperation in the region and to encourage additional burden-sharing, responsibility-sharing with allies and partners," he added.
Addressing the Arab-Islamic-US summit in Riyadh, Trump said his country was seeking to achieve peace, security and prosperity in the Middle East region and the entire world, stressing the necessity of standing united in order to defeat terrorism and extremism from which most of world countries have suffered. (end) si.bs