Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Saud Al-Faisal attended the 73rd meeting of the foreign ministers of the GCC member states that was held in Riyadh yesterday to formulate the agenda for the 20th GCC Summit scheduled for the end of November. At a press conference afterwards, Prince Saud Al-Faisal reported that although the meeting had been successful, another was scheduled to finalize the agenda. Regarding the tripartite panel on the Iran-UAE dispute, Prince Saud repeated that it would report directly to the Summit and that he was not therefore in a position to say anything about the progress of its deliberations. Regarding the GCC's position on the view expressed by the United Nations Security Council on the sanctions imposed on Iraq, Prince Saud said the GCC member states would like to lift the sufferings from the Iraqi people, but the Iraqi government's refusal to implement the UN resolutions was impeding the matter. He declared that the upcoming GCC Summit was important in terms of its economic and security as well as political aspects.

During the meeting, Prince Saud Al-Faisal praised the recent decision of the State of Bahrain to allow GCC citizens to own real estate in Bahrain for residence as well as investment purposes. Referring to the meeting's great task in preparing for the Summit, he said unification of matters of politics, economics and security is vital to enable the GCC states to face any challenge.  He went on to praise the progress of relations between the GCC states and Iran, and blamed the Iraqi government for the continuing sufferings of the Iraqi people.
Secretary-General of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Sheikh Jameel Al-Hujeilan met today in Abu Dhabi with UAE Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Sultan Bin Zaid Al-Nahayan to review the GCC's progress over the past year, and discuss the proposed agenda for the Summit in Riyadh at the end of this month.

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