GCC summit: focus on security, relations with Iran

The 18th GCC summit resumed its deliberations on Sunday in a closed-door meeting during which issues relating to economics, politics, security and the stalled peace process were discussed.

Oman's Foreign Affairs Minister said the Middle East peace process is in the forefront of the summit's priorities. In a statement to al-Itihida daily published in Abu Dhabi he said the GCC summit is convened amid key regional and international changes, especially the deadlocked Middle East peace process, the new drives and positive overtures of the Iranian policy, the Iraqi situation and the proposal for a united Arab Gulf army.

Bin Alawi added the Gulf States have achieved major strides in "strengthening the GCC march in serving its peoples, peoples of the region and in securing security and stability in this important region of the world."

Well-informed sources at the summit said that future relations between the GCC's member states and Iran will be on top of the GCC agenda. The sources went on to say that the final statement of the three-day summit will express sympathy over the sufferings of the Iraqi people, who are exposed to severe UN sanctions, but it will at the same time urge the Iraqi government to abide by UN resolutions connected to its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.