Report: Al-Mashnouq a 'Guest of Honor' at GCC Ministers Meeting

Interior Minister Nouhad al-Mashnouq has been invited to the Gulf Cooperation Council's interior ministers' meeting scheduled to be held in Doha next week, al-Akhbar newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Al-Mashnouq will be the “guest of honor” in the meeting that would also be attended by five cabinet ministers from the GCC countries, the daily said.

The meeting is aimed at discussing ways to coordinate efforts to confront terrorism.

According to al-Akhbar, al-Mashnouq said his visit to the Qatari capital follows the meeting of Arab interior ministers that he attended in Morocco last March.

Discussions are underway to invite Prime Minister Tammam Salam to the Doha meeting, the daily added.

Analysts have said that advances by jihadists in Syria and Iraq, and U.S. calls for a coalition against them have made Gulf monarchies set aside disputes over Qatar's support for the Muslim Brotherhood.

Wary of spectacular gains made by Islamic State jihadists, the oil-rich monarchies fear the militants could advance towards their own borders, where the extreme ideologies could find support.

Qatar's relations with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain sank to a new low in March when the three governments withdrew their ambassadors from Doha, accusing it of meddling in their affairs and supporting the Brotherhood -- designated as "terrorist" by Riyadh.

But Kuwait's top diplomat Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah said that the six-months spat with Qatar was on its way to being resolved.

He said the ambassadors could return to their posts "at any time,” without giving a specific date.

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