The statement came in a lecture given by Al-Thani under the title of "Gulf Security – Where to?" on the sidelines of the Seventh Doha Cultural Festival.
"On top of the issues that affect the security of the Gulf region are the Palestine question, the Iraqi issue and the Iranian nuclear dispute," he believes.
"The security of the Gulf will remain part of the responsibility of the sons of the Gulf, It depends basically on building mutual confidence among the Gulf countries and their self-reliance.
"We can not disregard the effects of globalization challenges in this regard since the concept of regional security and that of international security go hand in hand.
"The issues of energy security, terrorism combat, and nonproliferation of weapons of mass destruction are interrelated.
"The security cooperation among the Gulf Cooperation Council member countries lags far behind their economic and political cooperation which achieved big strides forward," he regretted.
Al-Thani urged the oil-rich GCC members to uses their economic resources to achieve more integration in all fields.
He called for developing a new GCC mechanism to deal with the security challenges and form a comprehensive security strategy.
"Individual endeavors can not serve regional security. They could rather lead to problems and hinder the strategic partnerships among countries," he warned.
"Qatar is trying to change the reality of the Arab world through enhanced economic, cultural and political cooperation among the Arab countries.
"Such cooperation does not target any other countries," Al-Thani made clear.
"The Arab countries need to have a higher level of maturity that could lead to more active and positive cooperation without creating enmity or feuds," he suggested.
Asked about the Iranian-West nuclear dispute, Al-Thani said he believed that the GCC members should have their own analysis of the issue away from the Iranian stated position and the West accusations.
He called for dialogue between the GCC and Iran to assure the former of the peaceful intentions of Iran.
Meanwhile, Al-Thani welcomed the visit to Qatar by Saudi Crown Prince Sultan Bin-Abdulaziz, slated for Monday.
"The visit is part of the normal exchange of friendly visits among the GCC leaders," he pointed out.
