Israel's air strikes on Gaza will not derail Gulf Arab leaders' plans to sign monetary union pacts at a summit next week but the issue will share the spotlight at their discussions, Omani hosts said this afternoon.
"The issue (Gaza) will impose itself on the agenda. The events of yesterday will have their deserved place in the discussions," Information Minister Hamad al-Rashdi said.
But Gulf Arab rulers gathering on Monday are still expected to approve a long-planned pact to take them one step closer to issuing a single currency.
"I don't think the agenda will be derailed," Abdulmalik al-Hinai, undersecretary for economic affairs at Oman's Ministry of National Economy, said.
More than 280 Palestinians were killed in 24 hours of Israeli attacks in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials said today.
The head of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), which groups Washington's regional allies, yesterday described the Israeli attacks as "barbaric" and "ugly", and Saudi Arabia urged the United States to intervene to end the strikes.
The US administration said Palestinian militant group Hamas was responsible for "breaking the ceasefire and for the renewal of violence in Gaza".
The GCC is a loose political and economic alliance of six oil-producing nations - Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.
The meeting could be followed by an Arab summit on Friday, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper said, citing an Arab League official.
The Arab League has delayed until Wednesday an emergency foreign ministers' meeting called to take a common position on the raids because many of them were busy in separate meetings of two Arab regional groups - the GCC and the Maghreb Union.
Gulf states had yet to agree on where the joint central bank would be located, which could be decided tomorrow, Hinai said.
"They have not agreed on that. At least three of them want it," he said. "They will discuss the monetary union and issue the agreement of the monetary union and the basic law of the monetary council."
Mohamed al-Mazrooei, an assistant to the GCC Secretary General for economic affairs, said the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain have submitted proposals to host the bank while Saudi Arabia has expressed its interest without making an official request.
Deciding on the location is one of the political obstacles that have derailed the single currency plan for years.
Saudi Arabia argues it should host the central bank because it is the region's biggest economy, while other Gulf states are vying because they do not host any regional bodies, he said.
Global economic concerns are also expected to weigh on the meeting. Oil prices have collapsed to about a quarter of their peak in July, putting an end to the Gulf region's economic boom.
The credit crunch is derailing expansion projects and Gulf Arab bourses have tumbled sharply this year.
Rulers would also discuss a proposal to extend by a year the time period to implement a regional customs union, Hinai said.
Gulf states had yet to reach a deal on how to distribute customs revenues, an issue that should be resolved by the end of next year following a consultancy study, he said.
Reuters