GCC member states to hold extraordinary meeting

Well-informed sources in Manama, Bahrain said on Monday that intensive contacts are being made between the Gulf Cooperation Council's six member states to convene an extraordinary meeting of the GCC states' foreign ministers.

The Gulf News Agency quoted these sources as saying in statements issued by the Bahraini daily al-Ayam that the extraordinary session of the GCC ministers will be convened before the consultation meeting of the Arab foreign ministers to be held in Cairo.

The same sources expected the extraordinary meeting of the GCC foreign ministers to be held on Tuesday night in Riyadh. The sources indicated that this meeting will be dedicated to assessing current developments in the region, especially the US-British attack on Iraq and its consequences on the region.

The meeting will also deal with means of coordinating positions between the GCC member states before the Arab consultative meeting and of taking a united position concerning the proposed Arab summit to review the recent attacks against Iraq.

The sources explained that the position of the GCC is in support of convening the Arab summit conference, but under the condition that it would have a certain agenda to reach a united Arab stand.

This is at the same time in which Cairo announced the postponement of a meeting of Arab foreign ministers that was to be held tomorrow, upon which 17 countries out of 22 Arab countries agreed.

The Gulf states had reservations about convening an Arab summit to discuss the situation in Iraq that made convening this summit unlikely.