MANAMA: Sultanate of Oman on Saturday vehemently rejected the idea of going ahead with GCC Union plan citing it as not a feasible idea at this stage.
Yousuf Alwai Abdullah, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Oman told the 9th IISS Manama Dialogue that issues including the economic integration and creating jobs for 60% youth population were more important than Union.
“In case the GCC will go ahead with the Union idea, Oman simply will be out as we feel that Union is not feasible at this stage,” Minister told The24X7News on the sidelines of the IISS Manama Dialogue 2013.
“The perception of threat being faced by the GCC is seems a myopic and there has been no real threat. GCC needs to focus on its core issues including the GCC economic integration bringing in prosperity for the people of the region,” the Minister added.
The Minister said that the GCC should not indulge itself in regional and international conflicts as there was no imminent danger to the integrity of the GCC as a bloc.
The Omani Foreign Minister said that his country has been working on various new ideas which would likely to be materialised in a year’s time. “The new ideas should be acceptable to all members covering all ground realities and the core issues,” the Minister said.
“There are other issues including the economic integration of the region other than going ahead for Union,” he added.