"This will be a historic meeting on King Abdullah’s initiative to be attended by Abdullateef Al-Zayani, GCC secretary-general, and chaired by Musaed bin Mohammed Al-Aiban, minister of state and Cabinet member," said GCC spokesman Saleem S. A. Alwi on Monday.
Alwi said the three-day meeting will be attended by 18 members nominated by the Gulf states. Each member state will be sending three representatives. Former GCC secretary-generals have also been invited to attend the discussions and share their experiences with their input, he added.
Asked about the specifics of the meeting agenda, Alwi said the GCC Commission will discuss and debate a number of issues, proposals and plans in order to prepare an initial report — a sort of road map for future action.
More than 25 top officials from the GCC General Secretariat and member states will also be present.
The first meeting of commission for studying King Abdullah’s initiative to move beyond the stage of cooperation and form a GCC union comes in line with the directives of the GCC heads of state following their summit in Riyadh on Dec. 20 last year.
Referring to the agenda of the meeting, Al-Zayani said on Monday: "A preliminary report prepared by the commission will be reviewed during the next session of the GCC Ministerial Council in March. The GCC foreign ministers who form the ministerial council will send their final recommendations to the GCC heads of state, who will discuss and examine the recommendations in their consultative meeting to be held in May this year.”
"In fact, the proposals worked out by the GCC Commission will be significant keeping in view the volatile situation of the region in the wake of the Iranian threat and regional turmoil," said Mohammed Al-Zulfa, a former Saudi Shoura Council member. "The objective of transition from the GCC to a strong Gulf Union can be achieved because there are many similarities and shared interests among the six Gulf states and a homogeneity that is not found in other international alliances," he added.
