By Eman Al-Houti
KUWAIT, Dec 4 (KUNA) -- Five Secretaries General have led the Gulf Cooperative Council (GCC) since its inception in 1981.
The GCC Secretary General is an important position that helps to coordinate efforts amongst leaders of the Gulf countries. The first GCC Secretary General was Kuwait's Abdullah Yaqoub Bshara who was born in 1936. The Kuwaiti official received education in Egypt and the UK between 1959 and 1962. Bshara obtained his MA in diplomacy and foreign relations while studying in the US in 1973.
Bshara was the non-permanent Kuwaiti delegate to the UN from 1971 until 1981. He was chosen as GCC Secretary General in 1981 and continued to hold the position until 1993.
UAE's Fahem bin Sultan Al-Qasmi, born in 1948, held the position from 1993 until 1995. He was the UAE's Permanent delegate to the UN headquarters in Geneva between 1977 and 1980 and also held the same position at the UN headquarters in New York from 1980 until 1984.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Jamil Ibrahim Hejailan, born in 1926, was the first Saudi Ambassador to the State of Kuwait.
Held several ministerial and diplomatic positions in Saudi Arabia. He led the GCC as Secretary General from 1995 until 2002.
Hejailan was followed by Qatar's Abdul Rahman bin Hamad Al-Atiyyah, born in 1950, who held several key positions in the Qatari Foreign Ministry before leading the GCC Secretary General position between 2002 until 2011.
Since 2011, Bahrain's Abdullatif bin Rashid Al-Zayani held the Secretary General position.
Al-Zayani, born in 1954, attained several positions in the Bahraini military and retired as a lieutenant general. (end) eh.gta