CRITICAL CIRCUMSTANCES

The foreign ministers of the six Gulf Co-operation Council countries, meeting as the Ministerial Council of the GCC, were gathered in Abha, Saudi Arabia, last week to review, as the official statement put it, developments in the Iran-Iraq war, the recent escalations in the "tankers war" and its impact on the security of the GCC member states. The foreign ministers held a joint session with the GCC oil ministers, to discuss a working paper prepared by the Secretariat on the world oil situation and its effect on the member states.