RIYADH, May 13: A form of union between Saudi Arabia and Bahrain appears to be on the cards. Press reports here indicate that Saudi Arabia is seeking closer union with Bahrain.

The union could later be expanded to include other willing members of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

Besides, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, the GCC comprises Kuwait, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Oman.

Leaders of the GCC meeting in Riyadh on Monday are expected to announce the union. “I expect there will be an announcement by two or three countries. We can’t be sure but I have a strong expectation,” Samira Rajab, the Bahraini Minister of State for Information Affairs, said on Sunday.

She said the idea of a formal GCC union backed by Bahrain could start with two or three members. “In Bahrain, we support setting up a Gulf union to protect us from the threats faced by the region on the political, economic, security and military fronts,” she added.

“Sovereignty will remain with each of the countries and they would remain as UN members but they would unite for the purpose of taking decisions regarding foreign relations, security, military and economy,” she added.

When GCC leaders last met in December, Saudi King Abdullah urged member nations to move “beyond the stage of cooperation and into the stage of unity in a single entity”.

“The threats of all kinds necessitate a serious move by the GCC countries to cross from the cooperation phase to a unity that is acceptable to all,” Saudi

Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said last month. Such a union would turn the oil-rich GCC into a “solid economic bloc”, he added.

Reuters adds: The decision appears to be part of a strategy to increase integration within the GCC, as the organisation frets over Iran’s influence in the region and the presence of Al Qaeda after the Arab uprisings.

Saudi security forces entered Bahrain in March 2011 ahead of a crackdown on pro-democracy protests which had been led mainly by Shias.

Iranian media assailed the plan. “Saudi Arabia’s aim in legally occupying Bahrain is to stop the influence of Shias on the Shia residents in the eastern regions of Saudi,” the semi-official Mehr news agency said.

“The aim of the Saudi regime in the future is the exclusion of Shias in Bahrain.”

Bahrain’s leading opposition party Wefaq said Saudi intervention was aimed at stopping democratic change. “The issues facing Bahrain are local, not regional. There is little the Saudis can do: they sent troops but failed because the crisis is still going on, and that’s because it requires a political solution,” said senior Wefaq official Jasim Husain.

“Any agreement must get the people’s approval, not least in Saudi Arabia. I suspect this supposed union is just rhetoric.”

Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s prime minister, is believed to oppose concessions to the Shia opposition. He backs the idea of a union.

“The great dream of the peoples of the region is to see the day when borders disappear with a union that creates one Gulf,” the official Bahrain News Agency quoted him as saying on Sunday.

Speaking after foreign ministers met in Riyadh, Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s foreign minister, said the plans for a union were ambitious.

“All aspects of union are on the table, between all members,” he said.

Ms Rajab said there were “reservations” among some GCC members over the union, while the deputy head of Bahrain’s appointed upper house of parliament said he was sceptical.

“I have my doubts,” said Jamal Fakhro. “It will not be an easy achievement to have one foreign policy between six countries, unless it’s limited to specific issues.”