Jordan confident of "gradual" admission to GCC bloc

Dec 6, 2011, 19:52 GMT

Amman - Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh on Tuesday denied reports in the Arab media that the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states had gone back on an offer to admit his country to the oil-rich Arab political bloc.

He told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the upper house of parliament that he envisaged a 'gradual' Jordanian admission to the Arab League, founded in 1981.

The GCC leaders made the offer to Jordan and Morocco in May to join the bloc, apparently in response to the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt that threatened the hereditary regimes in the Arab world.

Jordan held two round of talks with GCC foreign ministers in September and October amid reports that the alliance had proposed an aid package of 10 billion dollars to Jordan in the coming five years.

But last week the Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal was quoted as expressing concerns over Jordan's admission, saying 'we want to avoid Greece's example and its emergence as a burden for the European Union.'

His remarks came two days after the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed said that there was 'no consensus among the GCC countries over Jordan's admission'.

'The recent remarks by some GCC foreign ministers have been misunderstood and twisted by the media,' Judeh said in a testimony before the parliamentary panel.

'The ministers intended to say that Jordan's admission should be gradual with a view to coming up with the optimal version that enables Jordan to comply with the requirements of joining the bloc that was founded 30 years ago and has well-established institutions,' he added.

Judeh expected eight panels set up in October to follow-up the admission roadmap to start their work after the GCC summit in Riyadh later this month.