Notwithstanding the Omani Minister Responsible for Foreign Affairs’ most recent declaration that there was “no Gulf union,” and that such a scheme now only existed “among journalists”, the Sultanate’s perspective on Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdul Aziz’s proposal to transform the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) into a much stronger alliance reflected an existing schism within the alliance. Inasmuch as the Saudi monarch moved on his union proposal because he was persuaded that an existential threat from Iran confronted GCC States, the affable Yousuf Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah’s forceful declaration revealed that Muscat did not share the view that such a threat existed.
Other GCC governments, including Kuwait and the UAE, expressed similar reservations though neither volunteered to voice them in public. Bahrain and Qatar supported the proposal, while Manama stressed its urgency. Still, Muscat’s categorical assessments meant that no unanimity existed, although that did not in and of itself, indicate that the project was in permanent abeyance. In fact, the very idea of union was imbedded in the GCC when the alliance was created in 1981.
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