Jordan and Morocco are likely to join the Gulf Co-operation Council as the GCC leaders welcomed the bid of these two nations and instructions have been issued for the spade work at the foreign ministries level.
As the GCC will celebrate its 30th anniversary in two weeks, the leaders of the six Gulf Cooperation Council countries welcomed Jordan’s request to join the GCC and instructed completion of necessary measures in coordination with the Jordanian foreign minister. Similar instructions have been issued to the request of Morocco seeking admittance to the GCC bloc.
“The leaders hailed both requests as reflecting solidarity between the peoples of the six GCC countries on one side, and Jordan and Morocco on the other as well as common destiny,” Bahrain News Agency in a statement said.
“Leaders of the GCC welcomed the request of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to join the council and instructed the foreign minister to enter into negotiations to complete the procedures,” GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif Al Zayani said in Riyadh. He said the same procedure would be followed with Morocco.
Al Zayani was speaking after the 13th Consultative Summit of the leader of the GCC, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.
The GCC leaders meeting will discuss relations with Iran, a stalled transition plan in Yemen and the popular uprisings shaking the Arab world.
During the meeting the GCC will formally request all sides in Yemen to sign the transition deal aimed at ending months of anti-government unrest in the impoverished nation.
“The council urged the all parties in Yemen to sign the agreement which is the best way out of the crisis and spare the country further political division and deterioration of security,” the bloc’s leaders said in a joint statement.
GCC heads of state had discussed the bloc’s mediation efforts in Yemen which stalled in the face of veteran President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s refusal to sign up to proposals which would require him to stand down within a month rather than serving out his term until 2013 as he insists.