Manama: The foreign ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states will hold a meeting with their Yemeni counterpart in Sana’a next month, a Qatari newspaper has said.
The meeting, to be attended by GCC secretary general Abdul Rahman Al Atiyyah, will discuss economic and development cooperation between the six-member alliance and Yemen, the situation in Yemen and the outcome of the GCC summit held this month in Kuwait City regarding the latest developments in Yemen, Al Raya daily reported on Friday.
The GCC countries reiterated in their final communiqué on December 16 their full support to Yemen in the confrontation with Houthi rebels as the government forces seeks to reassert peace, stability and security in the country.
The GCC leaders also urged donor countries to honour pledges made to Yemen in the London Donors' Conference in 2006.
UAE foreign minister, Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, on Wednesday told reporters in Manama that Yemen’s stability was of paramount interest to the UAE and the other Gulf states and that his country had pledged a $750 million grant to Sana’a.
Yemen is not part of the GCC formed in 1981 in Abu Dhabi. However, the 2001 GCC summit in Muscat endorsed the idea of Yemen joining several of the GCC organizations.
Several Gulf and Yemeni politicians and analysts have been calling for the integration of Yemen in the alliance for political, social and economic reasons.
