KUWAIT CITY – Gulf Arab states will hold a summit this week to discuss a long-pending proposal to form an EU-like union at a time of regional turmoil and fresh Iranian overtures. But a proposal to develop the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) into a fully-fledged union has proven divisive, with Oman threatening to leave the GCC if the idea is approved. “The summit is held amid extremely sensitive and delicate situations that require member states to study the consequences for the GCC,” Secretary General Abdullatif Al-Zayani said ahead of the two-day summit, which opens on Tuesday in Kuwait. The summit comes a week after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif visited four GCC states to reassure them over the interim nuclear agreement, which would freeze some of Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for some sanctions relief. Relations with Iran “are entering a new space different from the past. A space that is extremely positive and constructive,” Kuwait's foreign ministry undersecretary Khaled Al-Jarallah told reporters after Iranian foreign minister's visit. Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Sabah, whose country is hosting the summit, told reporters on Friday that the conflict in Syria will be high on the agenda. Saudi Arabia in 2011 proposed creating a Gulf union. Bahrain was an early supporter of the idea. Kuwait and Qatar have since come around to the proposal, while the UAE has not yet adopted a firm position. But Foreign Minister Yusuf Bin Alawi of Oman on Saturday expressed opposition to the idea. “We will not prevent a union, but if it happens we will not be part of it... we will simply withdraw” from the new body, he said. Efforts to deepen economic ties — through the creation of a customs union and a common currency — have meanwhile stalled, even as the gross domestic product of thee six states has risen five-fold over the past decade to $1.6 trillion. – Agencies
