Manama: Bahrain’s Prime Minister said that Arab leaders of state, government and parliament should meet more regularly to confront challenges together.

“Their meetings have become a necessity in light of the challenges and difficult conditions of the region in order to preserve its security and stability,” Prince Khalifa Bin Salman Al Khalifa said. “Only the Arabs will serve Arab interests and no-one, but the Arabs themselves, will protect security and stability in the Arab world,” he said as he received on Thursday Ahmad Bin Mohammad Al Jarwan, the Speaker of the Arab Parliament.

Prince Khalifa said that Saudi Arabia was leading an Arab re-emergence that has given the Arabs a new stature and imposed a new reality about the inviolability of the Arab region.

“Everybody now appreciates that the region is not open to foreign interference,” he said. “The situation required resolve, the consolidation of security and stability and the prevention of foreign interference. The coalition was set up to put all matters in their right context. If we do not work together, the enemies will be able to separate and disperse use easily. The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states became aware of the risks and worked together through setting up the council,” he said.

The GCC, established in 1981, comprises Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

“We as Arabs have our own interests and we must preserve them through cooperation and the adoption of a common stance. Under the current challenges, we must not be stalled by conflicts and we must make sure that solutions must always be found within the Arab family in order to avoid any possible loopholes that will allow others to interfere in Arab matters,” he said.

Prince Khalifa added that Arabs must be careful not to be distracted by foreign interference attempts.

“They want us to divert our attention from our priority commitments to our religion, nation and people,” he said.

On Wednesday, Commander-in-Chief of Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa also warned against plots and schemes targeting the region.

“We are all aware of the risks threatening us and the schemes being plotted against us in the region,” he said. “There are countries that want to divide the region into statelets and there are countries that have selective sectarian agendas. There are also countries that want to make an economic take-over and others with endless plans. All these countries do not hold any goodness or amity for Arabs or Muslims, so they are using dark forces to undermine the security and stability of the region,” he said at a graduation hosted by the Royal Command, Staff and National Defence College.

Shaikh Khalifa added that the plotting countries were relying on their intelligence services and on sectarian and terrorist groups.

“They are using religion to launch a destructive religious war that is killing people, flouting human dignity, tearing at the social fabric and undermining national unity,” he said. “They are abusing sectarian identities and using militias as proxies in their war in order to expand their power to the region. However, the leaders of the same region responded by forming a coalition led by Saudi Arabia to restore legitimacy in Yemen,” he said.

Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa told the graduates from the GCC countries, Jordan and Egypt that terror groups, regardless of their claims and their use of religion, will always support sectarianism, fanaticism, extremism and seclusion.

“They will always be the first option to be used by the countries with expansionist schemes in the region to erode national cohesion and cause sectarian infighting. The guns of these groups are aimed at citizens. They spoiled lands, spread fear and allowed themselves to kill and destroy freely. All their acts are against Islam’s noble tenets and the merciful spirit of faith that promotes peace, security and wellbeing,” he said. “These groups ate simply offering away their own countries on a golden plate to the scheming countries that rush to implement their expansionist and greedy policies under various claims, such as human rights or the [Arab] Spring. They are all part of a global plan to undermine nations and erode social peace,” he said.