Manama: The extraordinary summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries to sign the transition to the Gulf union will be held within months, ahead of their annual meeting in December in Manama, a senior Bahraini official has said.
“The Gulf union has been approved and it will be a reality very soon,” Nabeel Al Hamer, the media advisor to King Hamad Bin Eisa Al Khalifa, said on his Twitter account. “The laws, charter and other legal measures related to the implementation are being assessed.”
Al Hamer who attended the summit in Riyadh on Monday said that Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar fully supported the union while Kuwait and Oman had some reservations about some points that are being addressed.
Oman had full reservations about the union, he said.
Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in December called for moving from the stage of cooperation to the stage of union within a single entity.
Bahrain and Saudi Arabia promptly welcomed the proposal and the 14th advisory summit held in Riyadh on Monday was expected to announce the launch of the core of the union.
However, Saud Al Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, said that the summit endorsed a call by King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz to give the GCC council of foreign ministers more time to look into the report drafted by an ad-hoc committee of 18 GCC citizens on the union.
Al Faisal said that the ministers would submit recommendations to the GCC leaders at an extraordinary summit to be held in the Saudi capital Riyadh. He however did not give a specific date.
