GCC officials to discuss key issues before UN meet

Key regional issues, with special reference to the UN General Assembly meeting in New York, will top the agenda of talks between Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in the Saudi capital on Tuesday. 

“The meeting will review key regional and international issues including Syria, Libya, Yemen and Palestine, besides the war on terror,” said a GCC statement released Monday. 

This GCC ministerial meeting comes a day before the UN General Assembly meeting in New York on Wednesday. “The foreign ministers’ meeting will also discuss the subjects that will be taken up by GCC countries at the UN, and also at other international organizations on the sidelines of the UN meeting,” said the statement.
A large number of top GCC officials will travel to the US to discuss and debate a range of important regional and international issues with world leaders, who have started assembling in New York to attend the 70th session of the UN General Assembly.
The GCC meeting, to be chaired by Qatar’s Foreign Minister Khaled bin Mohammad Al-Atiyyah, will also discuss recommendations of the past ministerial committees.

Asked about the agenda of the GCC ministerial meeting, a diplomatic source said that “regional issues like Yemen and Syria will figure prominently.” He said that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will also be discussed at length. To this end, he noted that the UN General Assembly on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a Palestinian resolution that will allow Palestine to fly its flag at the UN headquarters.
The GCC foreign ministers, he said, will also exchange notes about their participation in a major terrorism conference to be hosted by US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN meeting. In fact, leaders of the GCC states and other US allies have been invited to attend this summit to be held at the UN headquarters in New York on Sept. 29.