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Four GCC States to Sign Monetary Accord

RIYADH — An accord on monetary union among four members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council will be signed on Monday, GCC chief Abdurrahman Al Attiyah said on Friday, the SPA news agency reported.

The signing had originally been planned for Sunday but will now take place during a meeting in Riyadh of GCC foreign ministers. On May 20, the United Arab Emirates pulled out of the proposed monetary union. Oman announced in 2007 that it would not join.

The remaing four members of the GCC are Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Saudi Arabia. The UAE had expressed reservations over the monetary union after an informal GCC meeting in Saudi Arabia on May 5 decided that Riyadh, which is home to the GCC headquarters, would host the future banking authority. The UAE, in particular Dubai, is a major financial and commercial hub and had harboured ambitions of doing so.

SPA reported Attiyah as saying Monday’s meeting would also take stock of US President Barack Obama’s visit to both Saudi Arabia and Egypt, where on Thursday he made a speech reaching out to the Muslim world. It said the ministers would also meet their Yemeni counterpart to review ties with the Arabian Peninsula country.