The foreign ministers of six Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia, met on the shores of the Dead Sea in Jordan in order to discuss the region’s crises and efforts to confront them.
The meetings included Saudi State Minister for Foreign Affairs Adel al-Jubeir, Jordan’s FM Ayman Safadi, Egyptian FM Sameh Shoukri, the United Arab Emirates’ FM Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Bahraini FM Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa and Kuwaiti FM Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah.
The closed-door meetings were a "consultation between brothers and friends", Safadi said in a terse statement shortly after the meeting.
They were a forum "to exchange views on our regional issues and ways of cooperation to overcome regional crises and achieve security and stability," he said, without providing any details.
He explained that the meetings were open and did not have an agenda and sought mechanisms to achieve joint Arab interests.
“The discussions were positive and fruitful. We addressed all issues that we must work together on to achieve our common goal of security and stability,” Safadi said.
Thursday’s meeting was held two weeks before a planned US-Polish conference on the Middle East.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said the conference will look at "making sure Iran is not a destabilizing influence", although a senior US official has insisted it is "not an anti-Iran meeting."
It will be held amid Washington’s proposal to establish a strategic Middle East alliance, or Arab NATO, that would seek to achieve peace in the turbulent region.
The Dead Sea meeting also came amid debate over the return of Syria to the Arab League, which suspended Damascus's membership in November 2011, as the country appears on the verge of ending its eight-year conflict.
Several Arab states, including Lebanon and Tunisia, have called for Syria's return.
In December, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir made the first visit to Damascus by an Arab leader since 2011, and the UAE reopened its embassy.
