MANAMA — Gulf foreign ministers asked the world on Sunday to treat the Houthis as a terrorist group and held Iran “fully responsible” for attacks on their states. The same communiqué backed mediation and said the Gulf must be in the room on any US-Iran deal.
The 168th session of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s Ministerial Council met in Manama under Bahrain’s foreign minister, Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani, according to its final communiqué. A Russia-GCC strategic dialogue ran on the sidelines, where Moscow presented what TEH reported as the Lavrov Gulf security concept.
Saudi Arabia got the strongest language. The council declared “full solidarity” with the kingdom and backed “all measures it undertakes”. It called the security of members “indivisible” and said any aggression against one is “a direct aggression against all GCC states”, under the Joint Defence Agreement. The text does not say what those measures are, or whether any member would join them.
On the Houthis, the final communiqué calls for designating the Houthi militia as a terrorist group and demands enforcement of the arms embargo under UN Security Council resolutions including 2216. It welcomes the Security Council’s October 15 presidential statement condemning the attacks on Saudi Arabia.
Secretary-General Jasem Albudaiwi called the attacks “deliberate criminal behavior,” Arab News reported. The National reported that he singled out the Riyadh airport attack of October 10, which it said killed 12 people and injured more than 300.
Iran drew the sharpest accountability demand. The communiqué holds Tehran “fully responsible” for missile and drone attacks on member states and Jordan, rejects “all claims” Iran has offered to justify them and asks the Security Council to compel full reparation. Albudaiwi put the scale at 7,000 ballistic missiles since February 28, Arab News reported. The National’s account of his remarks says more than 7,000 ballistic missiles and drones. Neither says how it was counted.
Yet the text also asks for diplomacy. It supports “mediation efforts and diplomatic initiatives” by regional and friendly countries, and says any understandings must cover Iran’s nuclear and missile programmes, drones and support for proxies, with the GCC states involved in “any negotiations or arrangements affecting their security and interests.” Zayani backed the continuing mediation of Oman and Qatar, Arab News reported.
On Hormuz, the council called “unlawful fees or restrictions on passage” a threat to international peace and security, rejected any prior-authorisation requirement for transit and called for conditions to return to those before February 28, 2026. It cited the law of the sea and a 1974 Oman-Iran boundary agreement. Bahrain, which chaired Sunday’s session, had declined in September to attend the Salalah talks on Hormuz, which Oman postponed, TEH reported.
The communiqué does not say who would enforce a Houthi designation, or what follows if the Security Council does not act. No reply from Tehran or the Houthis had surfaced in the sources TEH read. Nor does it say whether a council that wants Iran to pay expects to sit across from it.
