Moroccan FM Welcomes Offer to Join GCC
Morocco's foreign minister on Sunday welcomed a Gulf Cooperation Council invitation for his country to join the six-member grouping of Arab monarchies, the Emirati news agency WAM reported.
Taieb Fassi Fihri, visiting the United Arab Emirates on a Gulf tour which took him to oil-kingpin Saudi Arabia, welcomed "the sincere GCC invitation to Morocco to join" the council, WAM said.
In an interview published Sunday in al-Hayat newspaper, Fihri said his country had "responded positively to the Gulf invitation and it is important for it to take place gradually."
Joining the grouping of the six oil-rich Arab monarchies of the Gulf "needs time and no timeframe has yet been set for it to begin," the foreign minister said.
The Moroccan official met UAE President Khalifa bin Zayed Al-Nahayan on Sunday, a day after talks with Saudi King Abdullah.
The GCC states last week "welcomed" a Jordanian request to join the organisation and invited Morocco to do the same.
Morocco and Jordan are the only Arab monarchies outside the Gulf grouping, which brings together Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
The monarchies have been relatively unscathed by the wave of pro-democracy revolts sweeping the Arab world since January.
Fihri also defended the Gulf troop deployment to help put down protests in Bahrain and accused Iran of meddling, in comments to al-Hayat. "Nobody can say 'no' to the intervention" by Bahrain's Arab neighbors, he told the Saudi daily.
On March 14, a Saudi-led joint contingent moved into Bahrain, freeing up local security forces in the Sunni-ruled state to crush a month-old protest led by the kingdom's Shiite majority.
Morocco has repeatedly denounced "Iranian interference in the Gulf," especially after the protests in Bahrain, which has accused Shiite-dominated Iran of interference.
"We cut our relations with Iran nearly two years ago after it attempted to interfere in our affairs. Morocco is a united country and we have no Shiites," said Fihri.
Asked if Iran had become a "burden" for its Arab neighbors, Fihri, whose country has also been the scene of pro-democracy protests said "no doubt it has."
Morocco's King Mohammed VI on March 9 announced comprehensive constitutional reforms, including the independence of the country's judicial system and the separation of powers.