ABDEL AZIZ ALUWAISHEG
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 (GCC) on
May 25, 1981.
The first step was the formation of the UAE. During the three years between the British announcement of its impending withdrawal and the actual termination of its protectorate and military presence in the Gulf on Dec.
16, 1971, six emirates succeeded in forming the United Arab Emirates, which was founded on Dec. 2, 1971. Ras Al Khaimah, the seventh emirate, joined a few months later. Bahrain and Qatar contemplated joining the union for a while, but in the end bowed out, despite efforts by Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Britain to persuade them. The search continued for a larger framework to include the rest of the Gulf states. Sheikh Jaber Al-Sabah of Kuwait championed the renewed efforts. In May 1976, he formally called for the establishment of the GCC during a visit to the UAE, whose President Sheikh Zayed strongly supported the idea. In November 1976, in Muscat, a security framework that would have also included Iraq and Iran was discussed but abandoned because of fundamental differences over the concept, especially between Iran and Iraq.
Efforts continued to establish the GCC without those two countries. Saddam Hussein of
Iraq tried to hinder those efforts and the Soviet Union was also
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