To expand their regional grouping, the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has said it is considering requests from Morocco and Jordan to join the bloc.
“The GCC foreign ministers would hold talks with the foreign ministers of both countries to complete required procedures”, its Secretary General, Mr Abdullatif al-Zayani, said at the conclusion of the 13th annual Consultative Summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh,
It was, however, unclear what kind of membership is being considered for the two non-Gulf Arab countries.
The GCC will become a market for over a hundred million people if Jordan, Morocco and Yemen become members of the bloc, a GCC official was quoted by the Arabic media as saying.
“The Supreme Council of the GCC also assigned the Ministerial Council to invite the foreign minister of Morocco to enter into negotiations to finalise the necessary procedures for joining the Council based on a preceding communication with the Moroccan Kingdom during which it was invited to join the GCC,” a statement released by UAE’s official news agency Wam said.
During the meeting, GCC leaders discussed Gulf’s relation with Iran and the political crisis in Yemen, which has limited observer status in the grouping.
Yemen is currently negotiating with the GCC and its accession is due by 2016. The summit also discussed its decision to create a development fund of $20 billion to help Bahrain and Oman.
GCC is a political and economic union of the Persian Gulf Arab states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.