UAE academic: GCC is defunct, new body taking shape

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is over but there will be an alternative, an Emirati political academic close to Abu Dhabi’s Crown Prince said on Tuesday.

Emirati academic Abdulkhaleq Abdulla

Abdulkhaleq Abdulla announced on Twitter that the US-Saudi Arabia-UAE Committee, which was formed on 26 March and is set to convene once a month to coordinate mechanisms among these countries, “will henceforth be an alternative for the annual US-GCC meeting”.

The Saudi-UAE committee, Abdulla added, which was formed on 5 December will be an alternative for the GCC “until further notice”.

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Last year, the UAE announced the formation of a new political and military alliance with Saudi Arabia, throwing into doubt the future of the GCC, the Gulf states’ 36-year-old political and trading bloc.

On 26 March, a new trilateral American-Saudi-Emirati committee was established with the aim of building closer coordination to counter Iran’s “destabilising behaviour”.