KUWAIT CITY, 7 December 2003 — A member of Iraq’s Governing Council said yesterday that his country wants to join the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and has the right to belong to the regional organization.
Ibrahim al-Jaafari, a member of the US-appointed Iraqi council, made the statement two weeks before a summit meeting of GCC leaders is scheduled in Kuwait.
“We believe that the new Iraq has to be a member of the GCC,” Al-Jaafari told reporters on the sidelines of a conference on Islamic groups and political reform. “(Iraq) doesn’t only have the right to belong, it can also offer strong backing and support for the Gulf countries.”
The council groups Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Iraq was never a member, but it was represented in some of the GCC’s cultural and sports organizations.
Iraq’s ties to the organization were cut when President Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion of Kuwait in 1990 and the Iraqi Army occupied the country for seven months. A US-led coalition liberated the country in the 1991 Gulf War.
“Iraq is a country that overlooks the Gulf, this is a truth... it is actually an Arab Gulf country,” Al-Jaafari said. If the regime of Saddam Hussein was an obstacle, it is gone now, he added.
Al-Jaafari said he has discussed this with all Gulf states and “found nothing but positive positions.” Ties between Kuwait and Iraq were severed until the United States and Britain invaded Iraq and removed Saddam from power in April.
