GCC leaders convene summit
Gulf, Politics, 5/11/1999

Leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council member states started on Monday afternoon in Jeddah meetings of their first consultation summit, which was approved by the recent GCC summit of Abu Dhabi to be held once every six months but without a set work agenda.

The GCC leaders discussed in their meetings what had been carried out of decisions and recommendations released by the recent Abu Dhabi summit of December 1998 as well as discussions on developments in the Gulf, Arab and international arenas.

The situation in the Arab Gulf region, the Gulf-Iranian relations, the current bottleneck in the Middle East peace process due to the Israeli intransigence as well as the continued Israeli aggressions on south Lebanon and its western Bekaa are on the top of political issues to be debated between the GCC leaders in their consultative summit.

The economic issue also occupied an important position in the discussions of the leaders of the GCC, especially in relation to the establishment of the customs federation among the GCC member states by the year 2001 as well as continued coordination and consultation among these states towards the Gulf oil policy with the other oil-producing countries, a coordination which resulted in an important increase in oil prices and the need to keep up the current price level of oil which is of positive reflections on the economics and budgets of the Gulf states.

Before convening their first consultative meeting in Jeddah, the GCC leaders held on Monday a series of bilateral meetings. Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz met separately with the emir of Kuwait, emir of Bahrain, emir of Qatar, Abu Dhabi's crown prince and Oman's deputy premier. During these meetings bilateral relations between Saudi Arabia and each of the said countries were discussed. The latest developments on the Arab, Islamic and international arenas were also reviewed.

Meanwhile, at his residence in Jeddah, Kuwaiti Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah met with the Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khaleifa al-Thani.

Previous Stories:
  Gulf summit meeting begins today   (5/10/1999)
  First consultation meeting for the GCC member states on Monday   (5/7/1999)
  GCC: Occupation of Gulf islands the only obstacle before improving Gulf-Iranian relations   (4/21/1999)

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