Enthusiasm to join the Gulf Cooperation Council is widespread among hopefuls Jordan and Morocco, but far less so among people who are already Khaleeji, a poll has a found. 

Only 16 percent of GCC nationals want Jordan to join, and 11 percent support Moroccan membership, according to a recently released survey compiled for Al Aan TV’s Nabd al Arab, or “Arabs’ Pulse” programme by YouGov Siraj.

Analysts said the reluctance has to do in part with a desire to hold onto identity and the economic effect of adding new members.

The National reports:

Jane Kinninmont, a senior research fellow on the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Chatham House, said the preference for Iraq and Yemen implied “Gulf nationals regard the Gulf identity of the union as particularly important, rather than the focus on regime type, such as monarchy”…

“There’s an Arabic saying that goes, ‘man is an enemy of what he is ignorant of’,” (Nasser al Shaikh, the former director general of the Dubai Department of Finance), said.

“We are yet to understand the basis on which Jordan’s application to join the GCC was initially accepted and Morocco was invited.”There are more differences between the two candidate nations and the current six GCC nations based on the GCC we’ve known of the past 30 years.

Read the full article here. 

And tell us what you think! Should Jordan and Morocco be welcomed into the GCC? And if so, under what terms?