GCC Leaders Refer Plan For Union For Further Study-Saudi Minister

Monday, May 14, 2012

RIYADH (Dow Jones)--Gulf leaders decided Monday not to move immediately on a Saudi proposal to make their six-nation council into a full-fledged union, telling Saudi Arabia they wanted to know more about what such a federation would entail, the Saudi foreign minister said.

Saudi Arabia had proposed in December that the six states of the Gulf Cooperation Council--Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and United Arab Emirates--remake their bloc into a formal union, with shared security, foreign, and economic policies.

In recent week, authorities also spoke of an immediate union between Saudi Arabia and its tiny neighbor Bahrain, with other states to follow later.

Gulf leaders decided Monday, however, the proposal wasn't clear enough and set it aside indefinitely for further study, Saud al Faisal said.

"The goal is to find all the countries joining...and not just Saudi Arabia and Bahrain" the Saudi foreign minister said.

-By Ellen Knickmeyer, Dow Jones Newswires, +966 1 279 5252, ellen.knickmeyer@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

14-05-12 1815GMT