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Sharjah’s Ruler, Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi (L), with UAE President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan at the 1981 GCC Summit. Gulf News Archives
Sharjah’s Ruler, Sheikh Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi (L), with UAE President Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan at the 1981 GCC Summit. Gulf News Archives

1981 - The founding of the GCC

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Updated 19 April 2025

1981 - The founding of the GCC

1981 - The founding of the GCC
  • The union of six Gulf states has accomplished much of what it set out to do 44 years ago

RIYADH: When, in January 1968, Britain announced its intention to leave the Gulf by 1971, it sent shock waves throughout the region. The search intensified for a new and more reliable security architecture. It took several steps, ending with the formation of the Gulf Cooperation Council on May 25, 1981. 

During the period between Britain’s announcement of 1968 and its actual withdrawal from the Gulf on Dec. 16, 1971, there was first an attempt to form a nine-member union between Bahrain and Qatar and the seven Trucial States, all of which were under various protection treaties with Britain. When that attempt failed, efforts were directed at forming a union among the Trucial States. The UAE was announced on Dec. 2, 1971, initially of six emirates, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al-Quwain. Ras Al-Khaimah, the seventh emirate, joined the following February.  

After that first step, the search continued for a larger framework to include the rest of the Gulf states, including Ƶ, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait. Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait championed the renewed efforts. In May 1976, he formally called for the establishment of a Gulf union during a visit to the UAE, whose president, Sheikh Zayed, strongly supported the idea. 

In November 1976, in Muscat, a security framework that would also have included Iraq and Iran was discussed but abandoned because of fundamental differences over the concept, especially between Iran and Iraq. 

Efforts to establish the GCC continued without Iran or Iraq. Saddam Hussein of Iraq tried to hinder those efforts unless Iraq was included, which was difficult to do given its war with Iran at the time. The Soviet Union and China were also opposed, for fear that the new organization would be Western-oriented. 

How we wrote it




Arab News announced the second GCC summit in Riyadh yielded “excellent results,” evidenced by a unified economic agreement.

The security vacuum was part of the rationale for advancing the founding of the GCC to close ranks among Gulf states. Besides Britain’s withdrawal, the revolution in Iran in February 1979 produced a clerical regime explicitly seeking to export its brand of radical politics to its neighbors and undermine their security. It helped in establishing, funding and training militant groups for that purpose in Bahrain and Ƶ, in addition to spreading its influence in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. 

In October 1979, in a meeting held in Taif, Ƶ, the general framework of the GCC was agreed, but differences remained on some issues. Some favored focusing on security and military integration — even a formal military alliance — while others wanted the new organization to emphasize soft power and economic integration. 

In 1980, Ƶn Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal was given the task of bringing the different views together and leading the exercise of drafting the charter, supported by Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah (who later became the Emir of Kuwait from 2006 until his death in 2020), Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak, and others. 

A flurry of meetings of ministers and experts took place in the early months of 1981, in Kuwait, Riyadh and Muscat, to finalize the draft, which was finally adopted by the heads of state on May 25, 1981, in Abu Dhabi, in the first formal meeting of the new organization. 

The GCC Charter was a compromise between the different formulations discussed for the new group. It did not privilege a particular emphasis, but called for “coordination and integration between member states in all fields, leading to their unity.” The reference to unity as a goal was important to guide the work of the organization. The reference to “all fields” gave the impetus for the formation of institutional structures dedicated to different branches of integration, including political, economic and security. 

Key Dates

  • 1

    The charter of the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf is signed by the heads of state of the UAE, Ƶ, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar and Kuwait at a conference in Abu Dhabi.

    Timeline Image May 25, 1981

  • 2

    GCC leaders sign a unified economic agreement during their second summit, in Riyadh.

  • 3

    Peninsula Shield, a joint GCC defense force, is established, with its headquarters at Hafr Al-Baatin in northeastern Ƶ.

    Timeline Image Oct. 15, 1985

  • 4

    A GCC customs union is created.

  • 5

    Introduction of the GCC common market.

  • 6

    Ƶ, the UAE and Bahrain withdraw their ambassadors from Doha, accusing Qatar of failing to abide by an agreement not to support “anyone threatening the security and stability of the GCC, whether as groups or individuals.”

    Timeline Image March 5, 2014

  • 7

    The GCC announces during its annual meeting the formation of a regional police force, based in Abu Dhabi.

    Timeline Image Dec. 8, 2014

  • 8

    King Salman’s vision for strengthening joint action by GCC members is announced in Riyadh during the organization’s 36th summit.

  • 9

    GCC announces activation of Unified Military Command HQ in Riyadh as a concrete step toward enhanced military coordination.

Today, the GCC Secretariat employs about 1,500 civilian staff, from the six member states, and hosts the main policymaking divisions of the organization. Its work is aided by about 30 specialized entities that deal with specific issues. There are economic organizations such as standards, patents, intellectual property and investment, as well as internal security organizations. Military organs employ additional uniformed staff. 

Since its inception in May 1981, the GCC has undoubtedly accomplished a lot of what it set out to do more than four decades ago. Economic tools, such as the free trade area, which was set up in 1983, the customs union (2003) and the common market (2008), have created great synergies between member states that have led to improved efficiencies and wide and dynamic markets. 

However, attempts at reaching a full economic union and a unified currency have yet to succeed. 

By economic and social indicators, the GCC states have been a brilliant success, in part because their membership in the GCC provided economies of scale, a deeper market and wider reach. 

In 1981, the combined gross domestic product of the six member states was just shy of $200 billion, and most GCC states were performing poorly in economic and social indicators. At that time, most GCC states had just shaken off British rule, which had lasted about 200 years, impoverished their economies, and ossified their political and social development. As a result, these states were underperforming economically and needed the solidarity and support of other GCC members. 

Today, the combined GCC GDP is about $2.4 trillion — a 12-fold increase over 1981. At the same time, per capita income has skyrocketed in some member states. And while in 1981 several GCC member states were low-ranking in most human-development indices, such as the level of education, health conditions, life expectancy and the gender gap, today GCC countries lead on those indices. Illiteracy has been fully eradicated, free health services are top notch and GCC universities sit high on international rankings. 




GCC leaders gather at the Abu Dhabi InterContinental Hotel for the inaugural summit. Gulf News Archives

Other significant achievements were also made, including the establishment of the unified military command in November 2018, building on decades of close cooperation between land, air and naval forces, including through the Peninsula Shield based in northern Ƶ since 1982, and the GCC Naval Operations Coordination Center in Bahrain. 

The GCC Police was established in 2012 and has been based in the UAE since. It coordinates the work of internal security forces at the operational level, in addition to the Riyadh-based Security Affairs division. 

However, a lot remains to be done to reach the goal of “unity” cited in the charter. The emerging, and almost existential, challenges that the region faces require new ways of doing things. Business as usual is no longer adequate. 

Member states have, over the years, proposed closer cooperation to meet those challenges. In 2012, the late King Abdullah of Ƶ proposed transition from the “cooperation” phase to a full-fledged union. 

In 2015, King Salman proposed a comprehensive vision aimed at upgrading cooperation mechanisms in economic, social, political, internal security and defense areas. His vision was adopted by other leaders and has become the GCC’s road map since then. While work is in progress to implement the remaining elements in this vision, Ƶ has announced that it intends to submit a phase two of this vision. 

One area that has been referred to in summit communiques repeatedly is the reform of GCC’s institutions, including the GCC Secretariat and the 30-odd other entities in its orbit. It has been recognized that governance needs to be overhauled to provide more transparency, accountability and efficiency. 

King Salman’s vision for the GCC, which was adopted by all leaders in December 2015, started that process but the pace of change has not been fast enough. 

  • Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg is the GCC assistant secretary-general for political affairs and negotiation, and a columnist for Arab News. The views expressed in this piece are personal and do not necessarily represent GCC views.


Royal Institute of Traditional Arts features at Expo 2025 Osaka’s Saudi Culture Week

Royal Institute of Traditional Arts features at Expo 2025 Osaka’s Saudi Culture Week
Updated 3 min 17 sec ago

Royal Institute of Traditional Arts features at Expo 2025 Osaka’s Saudi Culture Week

Royal Institute of Traditional Arts features at Expo 2025 Osaka’s Saudi Culture Week

‘Existential hour’ for Palestine at 30-country conference in Colombia

‘Existential hour’ for Palestine at 30-country conference in Colombia
Updated 5 min 22 sec ago

‘Existential hour’ for Palestine at 30-country conference in Colombia

‘Existential hour’ for Palestine at 30-country conference in Colombia
  • UN special rapporteur: ‘The time has come to act in pursuit of justice and peace’
  • Participants will lay groundwork for implementing UNGA motion calling for end to occupation

LONDON: A 30-country conference aimed at ending Israel’s occupation of Palestine is one of the most significant political developments of the past 20 months, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese has said.

The two-day event starts on Tuesday in the Colombian capital Bogota, and will be attended by representatives from countries including China, Spain and Qatar.

Albanese will announce that the conference comes at “an existential hour,” The Guardian reported on Tuesday.

Participating countries will use the event to lay the groundwork for implementing a UN General Assembly motion calling on member states to pressure Israel into ending its illegal occupation of Palestine.

The motion included a deadline of September for putting into action the International Court of Justice’s 2024 opinion that found Israel’s occupation of Palestine to be unlawful.

The court’s advisory opinion last July called on Israel to end its occupation “as rapidly as possible.”

UN member states also have an obligation “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation created by Israel’s illegal presence in the occupied Palestinian territory,” it found.

Conference host Gustavo Petro, Colombia’s president, said the meeting will demonstrate a global will to move from condemnation to collective action against Israel.

In an article for The Guardian last week, he said: “We can either stand firm in defense of the legal principles that seek to prevent war and conflict, or watch helplessly as the international system collapses under the weight of unchecked power politics.”

The Hague Group behind the conference was initially established by Colombia and South Africa, but now includes Spain, Qatar, Indonesia, Algeria and Brazil.

The group met in January at a nine-country conference and agreed to implement the ICJ’s provisional measures.

Albanese will tell the Bogota meeting: “For too long, international law has been treated as optional — applied selectively to those perceived as weak, ignored by those acting as the powerful. This double standard has eroded the very foundations of the legal order. That era must end.

“The world will remember what we, states and individuals, did in this moment — whether we recoiled in fear or rose in defense of human dignity.

“Here in Bogota, a growing number of states have the opportunity to break the silence and revert to a path of legality by finally saying: enough. Enough impunity. Enough empty rhetoric. Enough exceptionalism. Enough complicity.

“The time has come to act in pursuit of justice and peace — grounded in rights and freedoms for all, and not mere privileges for some, at the expense of the annihilation of others.”


Attacks against Palestinians intensify in occupied West Bank, says UN rights office

Attacks against Palestinians intensify in occupied West Bank, says UN rights office
Updated 55 min 43 sec ago

Attacks against Palestinians intensify in occupied West Bank, says UN rights office

Attacks against Palestinians intensify in occupied West Bank, says UN rights office
  • About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its ‘Iron Wall’ operation
  • In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly count of Palestinians injured in over two decades in the West Bank

GENEVA: There has been an increase in killings of and attacks against Palestinians by settlers and security forces in the occupied West Bank in recent weeks, the United Nations human rights office said on Tuesday.

“Israeli settlers and security forces have intensified their killings, attacks and harassment of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, in the past weeks,” Thameen Al-Kheetan, a spokesperson for the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OCHCR), told reporters in Geneva.

About 30,000 Palestinians have been forcibly displaced in the north of the occupied West Bank since the Israeli military launched its “Iron Wall” operation.

It is contributing to the ongoing consolidation of annexation of the West Bank, in violation of international law, the OHCHR said.

In June, the UN recorded the highest monthly count of Palestinians injured in over two decades in the West Bank.

Since January there have been 757 settler attacks on Palestinians or their properties, which is a 13 percent increase on the same period last year, OHCHR said.

At least 964 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, 2023, by Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Fifty-three Israelis have been killed in the West Bank and in Israel in reported attacks by Palestinians or in armed clashes, the office added.


One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, says UN Palestinian refugee agency

One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, says UN Palestinian refugee agency
Updated 49 min 9 sec ago

One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, says UN Palestinian refugee agency

One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished, says UN Palestinian refugee agency
  • One in ten children screened in UNRWA clinics are malnourished

GENEVA: One in ten children screened in clinics run by the United Nations refugee agency in Gaza is malnourished, UNRWA said on Tuesday.
"Our health teams are confirming that malnutrition rates are increasing in Gaza, especially since the siege was tightened more than four months ago on the second of March," UNRWA's Director of Communications, Juliette Touma, told reporters in Geneva via a video link from Amman, Jordan.


AI Umrah assistant to cut costs, enhance experience for Pakistan’s 2 million annual pilgrims

AI Umrah assistant to cut costs, enhance experience for Pakistan’s 2 million annual pilgrims
Updated 15 July 2025

AI Umrah assistant to cut costs, enhance experience for Pakistan’s 2 million annual pilgrims

AI Umrah assistant to cut costs, enhance experience for Pakistan’s 2 million annual pilgrims
  • Launched by Umrah Companions last week, “Ibraheem” offers personalized guidance in multiple languages, including Urdu
  • Pilgrims from Pakistan face confusing logistics, language barriers and high costs due to inefficient travel agency practices

ISLAMABAD: A Saudi-backed consortium has launched what it says is the world’s first artificial intelligence-powered Umrah advisor, “Ibraheem,” aimed at simplifying pilgrimage planning and reducing costs for millions of Muslims, including more than two million Pakistanis who travel to the Kingdom each year.

Ibraheem has been developed by Pakistani company Umrah Companions and is powered by Funadiq, a Saudi-based Destination Management Company specializing in Hajj and Umrah services.

The tool was launched last week and is designed to offer pilgrims personalized guidance in multiple languages, including Urdu and Roman Urdu, with the goal of cutting Umrah-related expenses by as much as 20 percent.

Pakistan is among the world’s largest pilgrimage markets, with over $5 billion spent annually by citizens traveling for Umrah and Hajj.

“Today, 93% of global Muslims cannot afford Hajj and Umrah. It is too expensive,” said Mohammad Salman Arain, CEO of Umrah Companions, in an interview with Arab News. “It is becoming expensive because we are not removing the inefficiencies in the processes — and that is what our mission is.”

Mohammad Salman Arain, CEO of Umrah Companions, speaks to Arab News during an interview in Islamabad on July 14, 2025, about his newly launched AI-powered Umrah advisor, “Ibraheem.” The tool is designed to simplify pilgrimage planning and reduce costs for millions of Muslims. (AN Photo)

Pakistanis often face language barriers, lack of personalized travel information, and high costs when arranging Umrah trips through human agents, many of whom offer fixed packages with little customization. Arain said the AI assistant overcomes these issues by adapting to each user’s needs, whether they are traveling with elderly parents, young children, or have budget constraints.

The platform currently supports ten languages, including Urdu, Roman Urdu, Arabic and English, and provides real-time recommendations on flights, hotels, food, weather, medical facilities and even services such as wheelchair availability near the Haram in Makkah.

“You can start with a very simple question: ‘I want to travel in August. Give me an estimated budget for four people,’” Arain said. “Ibraheem will then suggest premium or budget options, tell you whether hotels are suitable for elderly companions, and help build your itinerary.”

The tool’s language offerings and its flexibility for use on smartphones and low-bandwidth environments make it particularly suitable for Pakistani blue- and white-collar workers living in the Gulf, a group that often lacks access to transparent and user-friendly tech tools for pilgrimage planning.

Mohammad Salman Arain, CEO of Umrah Companions, briefs Arab News on his newly launched AI-powered Umrah advisor, “Ibraheem,” during an interview in Islamabad on July 14, 2025. The tool aims to simplify pilgrimage planning and reduce costs for millions of Muslims. (AN Photo)

“We are building to make everybody's life easier. It is not for us only,” Arain added. “This is available for everyone and every single Muslim in the world.”

Umrah Companions is also working on outreach to Pakistani freelancers and overseas workers through diplomatic missions, Pakistani banks, and diaspora associations, especially in Ƶ and the UAE, where a majority of Pakistani pilgrims are based.

While the service is focused on Umrah for now, Arain said it was already learning and being trained for Hajj season.

Once a pilgrim arrives in the Kingdom, the AI agent continues to provide support, from locating wheelchairs at Haram gates to suggesting restaurants and responding to emergencies, the chief executive explained.

The tool has already contributed to a 25% increase in website traffic, according to Arain, and is currently being built as an open platform available for use by all Muslims, regardless of which company they book their pilgrimage through.

The launch of the AI platform also aligns with Ƶ’s Vision 2030 goal to improve the pilgrimage experience through digital transformation and accessibility.

Arain said the initiative complements the Kingdom’s efforts to modernize religious tourism and ensure cost-effective pilgrimage options for lower-income Muslims.

“We believe this is going to revolutionize [pilgrimage],” Arain said, “and it is very much in line with what the Saudi Vision 2030 is doing to enhance the pilgrimage experience.”