Arab Gulf Union Council – What’s in a Name? | SUSRIS Blog
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an association of six Gulf Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and established in 1981, introduced the idea of bringing Jordan and Morocco into the organization last May. In December at the 32nd GCC Summit King Abdullah introduced an initiative to move the GCC to a single entity, a proposal that was approved and announced in the Riyadh Declaration.
Last month a Gulf Commission was called to start working on the unification proposal. Three representatives from each member state Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE took up the initiative in a meeting that included GCC officials and several former GCC secretaries general. The opening session was chaired by Saudi Arabian minister of state Dr. Musaed Bin Mohammed Al-Alban, according to an Arab News report. GCC Secretary General Abdullateef Al-Zayani noted that political unification would be preceded by full economic integration and that the final product would be a single entity capable of handling strategic issues as a union. Zayani commented, Significant progress toward regional integration has already been achieved since the GCC was established. The GCC consultative committee announced yesterday its recommendation that the new confederation be named The Arab Gulf Union Council.
Last month SUSRIS shared a briefing prepared by Nawaf Obaid, King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research Senior Fellow, providing a tour of the new landscape Saudi Arabia was operating in post Arab Spring. In it he addressed what he called the New Gulf Union:
Saudi Arabia is leading the creation of a bloc of like-minded states to ensure security, stability and prosperity;
Members include current GCC states: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, and Qatar; with the possibility of Jordan and Morocco joining at a later date;
Modeled on the EU, the Gulf Confederation will be a political, economic, and military alliance with its capital in Riyadh;
The unions decision-making body (modeled on the European Commission in Brussels) will replace the current GCC Secretariat;
Elements of the union will be phased in over the next five years.
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The GCC as an organization has emerged as one of the big winners of the changes of 2011. As an organization, the GCC has become indispensible, has become so much a vehicle for group thinking and group acting for the six GCC states on military level and diplomatic level, and all levels that you can think of, and hence the GCC has emerged as a big winner. And I think its now becoming a replacement even for the Arab League. Its taken the lead on almost all issues.. ..So the GCC has proven itself to be needed more than any other time in its thirty-year history. And I think that all the GCC states appreciate now how important this GCC has become.
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), an association of six Gulf Arab countries including Saudi Arabia and established in 1981, introduced the idea of bringing Jordan and Morocco into the organization last May. In December at the 32nd GCC Summit King Abdullah introduced an initiative to move the GCC to a single entity, a proposal that was approved and announced in the Riyadh Declaration.
Last month a Gulf Commission was called to start working on the unification proposal. Three representatives from each member state Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE took up the initiative in a meeting that included GCC officials and several former GCC secretaries general. The opening session was chaired by Saudi Arabian minister of state Dr. Musaed Bin Mohammed Al-Alban, according to an Arab News report. GCC Secretary General Abdullateef Al-Zayani noted that political unification would be preceded by full economic integration and that the final product would be a single entity capable of handling strategic issues as a union. Zayani commented, Significant progress toward regional integration has already been achieved since the GCC was established. The GCC consultative committee announced yesterday its recommendation that the new confederation be named The Arab Gulf Union Council.
Last month SUSRIS shared a briefing prepared by Nawaf Obaid, King Faisal Center for Islamic Studies and Research Senior Fellow, providing a tour of the new landscape Saudi Arabia was operating in post Arab Spring. In it he addressed what he called the New Gulf Union:
Saudi Arabia is leading the creation of a bloc of like-minded states to ensure security, stability and prosperity;
Members include current GCC states: Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, the UAE, Oman, and Qatar; with the possibility of Jordan and Morocco joining at a later date;
Modeled on the EU, the Gulf Confederation will be a political, economic, and military alliance with its capital in Riyadh;
The unions decision-making body (modeled on the European Commission in Brussels) will replace the current GCC Secretariat;
Elements of the union will be phased in over the next five years.
***********************
The GCC as an organization has emerged as one of the big winners of the changes of 2011. As an organization, the GCC has become indispensible, has become so much a vehicle for group thinking and group acting for the six GCC states on military level and diplomatic level, and all levels that you can think of, and hence the GCC has emerged as a big winner. And I think its now becoming a replacement even for the Arab League. Its taken the lead on almost all issues.. ..So the GCC has proven itself to be needed more than any other time in its thirty-year history. And I think that all the GCC states appreciate now how important this GCC has become.
