Soldiers install barbed wire fences in Kuwait city, where leaders of the Gulf Arab monarchies will open their first post-Saddam summit. Photo by AFP
Leaders of the oil-rich Gulf Arab monarchies will open their first post-Saddam Hussein annual summit and tackle the issues of fighting terrorism and relations with the new Iraq. The six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), founded in 1981 by the oil- and gas-rich states of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will gather in the city of Kuwait next week. Security has been heightened to maximum in Kuwait with hundreds of tanks and armoured vehicles and thousands of soldiers deployed Sunday to guard the conference venue.