Confusion over next GCC secretary general

Hours before the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) summit communiqué is issued, confusion was still reigning about the name of the GCC secretary general for the 2011-2014 term.

Bahrain has nominated Mohammad Al Mutawa, a former information minister and now a cultural advisor to the prime minister, to take the post over from Abdul Rahman Al Atiyyah, a Qatari national who has been in charge since 2002.

Four of the GCC countries have endorsed Bahrain's nominee, but Qatar has not publicly supported Al Mutawa, sparking a furry of speculations about whether it wanted to keep the post or it opposed the Bahraini nominee.

Bahrain's foreign minister Shaikh Khalid Bin Ahmad Al Khalifa on Friday said that there were consultations with the Qataris about the issue, but did not elaborate.

On Monday, Qatar's Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Shaikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabr Al Thani said that Doha did not have any objection to the nomination of a Bahraini candidate as GCC secretary general.

“The State of Qatar always welcomes the participation of all brothers in the GCC and of the Kingdom of Bahrain in particular. It is time for Bahrain to take its turn and it has the right to have the secretary general who will represent the Council and all of us,” Shaikh Hamad told Al Jazeera television channel a short time before the opening of the summit in Kuwait.

“The allegations about the issue are not true. We support the rotation and we have always endorsed it. All there is now is that we have some remarks that we have conveyed in a fraternal way to our brothers in Bahrain. They are not related to the right of Bahrain have a Bahraini national as secretary general," he said.

In Kuwait, Al Seyassah daily said on Tuesday that Al Mutawa would be next the next GCC secretary general after his nomination was supported by Qatar.

Bahrain was scheduled to assume the alphabetically-rotating post in 2002, but gave up its turn in favour of Qatar.