The leadership of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has over the years attached great importance to the Arab Gulf countries affairs. Since Abu Dhabi summit in May 25, 1981 which witnessed the birth of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the Saudi leadership of late King Khalid bin Abdulaziz Al Saud welcomed the move, wishing the new group to become a source of goodness to the Islamic Ummah and announcing that the GCC is never against any. The first test of the determination of the GCC leaders was Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 when late King Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud invited friendly and foreign forces to help the Kingdom's force to liberate Kuwait, in what was called the Gulf Desert Storm. King Fahd put it as this "we want to liberate Kuwait peacefully or forcibly, and peacefully is preferred". Nine months later, Kuwait was liberated with the participation of all armed forces of the GCC countries. Following the war, King Fahd proposed the establishment of the Arab Peninsula Shield force, composed of segments from all GCC member countries in defense of the Arab Gulf countries. In the same context, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, has most recently issued a historical decision to positively respond to the request of the Yemeni legitimate president Abdrabbo Mansour Hadi to liberate Yemen from the coup of Houthi militias, forming an Arab Islamic alliance to launch the Determination Storm Operation. In the GCC summit 2003, late King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud submitted a proposal to unify GCC educational curricula. In the next summit, he called for transferring the GCC military cooperation from a nominal force of the Peninsula Shield to an effective force. --More 23:01 LOCAL TIME 20:01 GMT تغريد
