Bahrain calls on neighbouring countries to monitor security threats

Bahrain's interior minister Sunday called on neighbouring countries to crack down upon weapons trafficking, which is part of strategy by some radical elements to export terror to Gulf States, the Bahrain News Agency reported.

Interior Minister Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa highlighted this issue during a meeting here with under secretaries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) interior ministries in which he spoke about the threats the country faces, Xinhua reported.

During the meeting, Bahrain's Public Security Chief Tariq Al Hassan briefed GCC officials on the four terror plots they uncovered recently, which included defusing of a car bomb, arresting 13 wanted criminals, seizing a shipment of ammunition being smuggled from Iraq to Bahrain as well as a raid of a weapons warehouse in Sitra village.

For his part, GCC Assistant Secretary General for security affairs, Hazaa bin Mubarak Al-Hajeri, said that all GCC countries are against any external security threat.

He noted that future meetings of GCC interior ministers will consider the unified Gulf police (GCCPOL) project to tackle crime and deter new threats.

The GCCPOL would be similar to Europol, the European Union's law enforcement agency that deals with serious organised crime.