Morocco, Jordan attend first GCC ministerial meeting in Jeddah

Morocco and Jordan on Sunday attended a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in the Saudi city of Jeddah for the first time since the two kingdoms were invited to join the bloc in the wake of the popular unrest that swept the region.

Sunday’s GCC meeting of foreign ministers agreed to form specialized committees to study the memberships of Jordan and Morocco and submit a comprehensive membership plan to the council.

The meeting, meanwhile, unveiled a five-year economic development assistance program to help Jordan and Morocco. The program will sent to the heads of GCC countries for discussion.

“There is a call for creating an economic development program for the two brotherly countries Jordan and Morocco,” GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif al-Zayani said after a Gulf foreign ministers meeting in Jeddah.

“A recommendation on the size (of the aid) will be made and a decision taken by the heads of states of the GCC at their next summit (in December),” Zayani said of the five-year program.

Within the bloc, the richer Gulf countries have offered $10 billion each in development funds to Bahrain and Oman, where protesters took to the streets this year demanding reforms.

On May 17, Ziani said in a statement that GCC welcomed a request by Jordan to join the bloc and that it sent a membership invitation to Morocco.

Morocco said it “welcomes with a great interest the invitation by the GCC,” according to a foreign ministry statement. But the statement also said that “Morocco reiterates unwavering commitment to building the Arab Maghreb Union as a fundamental strategic choice.”

Oil-exporting Gulf monarchies are seeking closer ties with Arab counterparts outside the Gulf to help contain pro-democracy unrest that is buffeting autocratic ruling elites throughout the Arab world, analysts say.