Egypt has good chances of joining GCC as a member state: official

Head of the Gulf Cooperation Council’s directorate in Kuwait’s foreign ministry said that it is considering allowing Egypt entry into the Gulf block as it has the most advantage over new candidates Morocco and Jordan.

The Kuwaiti daily al-Anba reported on Sunday that Humood al-Radhwan said his country fully supports Morocco and Jordan joining the GCC but after two years.

“A somewhat disorganized joining of both Jordan and Morocco cannot happen,” he said, adding that “the GCC states have similar features such as one language and religion and its society is more cohesive; there is no difference between a Kuwait and an Emirati for instance.”

There are 21 Arabic speaking countries, but the GCC bloc views itself as more culturally cohesive.

He said that does not mean there is no commonality between the GCC and Jordan and Morocco, but “we need two years of partnership with them and then we can look into them joining the two years after two years during the GCC summit.”

The GCC head said that there is a slight difference in point of views on how to deal with Jordan and Morocco.

“Of course we fully agree to aid Jordan and Morocco, but the amount of money has not been fixed yet or how it will be spent,” he said. Some countries want the aid to go through a direct fund while others want to give the aid through development funds via spurring projects to help the two countries’ economies, he said.

Early in October, an Egyptian official denied that his county had received any offer for Egypt to join the GCC.

But earlier in September Egyptian officials had said that the GCC states were enthusiastic about Cairo joining, as the country had the capabilities and shared mutual strategic interests with the Gulf states.

The sources said that an Egyptian role is increasingly necessary to the stability of the region, especially after the change of regime in Iraq and the increasing Iranian interference in the Iraqi political sphere.

Egypt which boasts the largest army in the Arab world has its security historically linked to the security of the Gulf, various sources said.

On September 11, Morocco and Jordan attended their first GCC ministerial meeting, in Jeddah.

Egypt and Morocco are the only Arab economies classified as emerging markets.