SANAA, 15 January 2004 — Yemen hit back yesterday at Emirati claims it is not qualified to join the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
“Yemen, with its historical heritage, its political strength and its strategic importance to security and stability on the Arabian Peninsula and in the GCC countries, is qualified to join,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told Al-Wehda daily.
The official voiced “astonishment” at the statement carried by AFP from UAE Information Minister Abdullah ibn Zayed Al-Nahayan on Monday that in the short term Yemen was not ready to stand alongside Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
“I don’t think Yemen could join after a year or two because it would not be in the interest of Yemen or the GCC countries,” said Abdullah Al-Nahayan.
“The European Union spent hundreds of millions of dollars to prepare countries like Greece and Spain to join. It took a dozen years for some countries to join,” he said.
Yemen has repeatedly sought to enter the prestigious club that was set up in 1981.
After five years of rebuffing Yemen, Gulf Arab leaders decided at a December 2001 summit to allow their Arab neighbor to join the GCC Council of Health Ministers, a regional education bureau, the Council of Labor and Social Affairs Ministers and the Gulf Football Cup as part of a gradual integration.
