United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahayan (R) with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani at the 31st GCC summit in Abu Dhabi 6 December 2010.(Reuters)
Arab leaders of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council called for "drying up" funding for terrorist organisations, and urged Iran to be "positive" on the nuclear talks with world powers, in a statement on Tuesday at the end of their annual GCC summit.
They "stressed the importance of working toward drying up sources of funding for terrorist groups and foiling their criminal aims" and urged the prevention of "media from publishing anything that would encourage these criminal acts."
According to US diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks, Saudi Arabia is the key source of funding for radical Islamist groups including Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Lashkar-e-Taiba and Hamas.
Other Gulf states are also important to militant fundraising, according to the cables, which brand fellow GCC members Qatar and Kuwait as notably lax in pursuing locals who donate to the groups.
Another cable notes that US officials raised concerns about "suspected Taliban-related financial activities" in the United Arab Emirates, which makes up the GCC along with Bahrain and Oman.
Also, they appealed to Iran to "respond positively" to talks with world powers about the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear programme.
Gulf Cooperation Council states "welcome international efforts, including those made by the P5+1, to peacefully resolve Iran's nuclear crisis and hope it will respond positively to these efforts," said a joint GCC statement.
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