(Ahlul Bayt News Agency) - The decision is part of a strategy to increase integration within the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC), as the organization’s six nations Worry about Iran’s power in the region and trying to counter the threat by Merging the PGCC States with in , so can show a bigger Power and Muscle against the Shiite Uprising with in the PGCC states, especially in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia and Bahrain might initially seek closer union, local media have said, as both share a concern about discontent among Shi’ite Muslims against their ruling Wahabi dynasties, and accuse Shi’ite Iran of fomenting it – a charge Iran denies , while it supports the revolutions in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia morally as it is the popular demand of the Shiite population against the injustices done on them.
Saudi security forces entered Bahrain in March 2011 ahead of a crackdown on pro-democracy protests which had been led mainly by majority Shi’ite Muslims against the Wahabi Al Khalifa monarchy, a U.S. ally.
“I expect there will be an announcement of two or three countries. We can’t be sure but I have a strong expectation,” Samira Rajab, Bahrain’s minister of state for information affairs, told Reuters on Sunday. Two of the countries mentioned were Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; Rajab did not name the third.
“Sovereignty will remain with each of the countries and they would remain as U.N. members but they would unite in decisions regarding foreign relations, security, military and the economy.”
Despite appearances of unity, there are deep divisions within the PGCC, which also includes Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, as its officials meet in Riyadh on Monday for day-long talks.
Saudi Arabia fears that Bahrain’s pro-democracy movement has the potential to spill over into its own Shi’ite-populated Eastern Province region, home to major oilfields.
In December 2011, Saudi King Abdullah called on the council members to move “beyond the stage of cooperation and into the stage of unity in a single entity.”
Reports say Saudi Arabia will merge initially with Bahrain in order for the six-member Arab council to reach unity.
This comes while some members of the council have expressed concern about Saudi Arabia’s possible dominance over the other five countries if the council becomes unified.
A Qatari official, whose name was not mentioned in the news reports, said on Friday that Doha “sees this all as Saudi’s way of undermining the [Persian] Gulf States bilateral relations and forcing its own agenda.”
But significant political obstacles loom. Some members of the Persian Gulf Cooperation Council (PGCC), which includes Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman, worry that convergence might spell dominance by the group’s largest member, Saudi Arabia.
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