Ministers to discuss Gulf security

Key regional issues will top the agenda of a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in Riyadh on Tuesday.
The meeting, convened three weeks ahead of a high-profile Arab Summit in Kuwait and possibly a few days before the visit of the US President Barack Obama to the Kingdom, has added significance for the Middle East and its extended neighborhood.
“The GCC foreign ministers are scheduled to discuss several other regional issues and common challenges, including Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Iraq,” said one GCC official on Sunday.
The official, however, did not say whether the meeting would discuss Obama’s visit to the Gulf, the Russian rhetorics on Syria and the forthcoming three-day Arab summit to be inaugurated on March 25 in Kuwait.
A statement released by the GCC General Secretariat here said: “This 130th ministerial meeting will be held under the chairmanship of Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khalid Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.”
The statement said the ministerial discussions would definitely focus on security issues in the region. The GCC security pact has divided opinion in the Gulf, especially in Kuwait, according to reports published in a section of the Gulf press.
The ministers will also review several reports submitted by the GCC General Secretariat regarding the decisions of the GCC Supreme Council at the Kuwait Summit.