five smaller Arab Gulf States, plus Saudi Arabia,
formed the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) on
May 25, 1981. For political and strategic reasons,
Iran and Iraq are conspicuously absent from this
regional alliance.
bAhrAIN
The smallest of the Gulf States, the island nation
of Bahrain has a population of 718,306 (2008
est.), more than 235,000 of whom are nonnation-
als. The majority (70 percent) consists of follow-
ers of tWelve-imam shiism who maintain close
ties to Shii religious centers in Iraq and Iran. The
government is controlled by the Sunni Al Khalifa,
a merchant family. Bahrain has been subject in the
past to Portuguese and British rule, but it achieved
independence in 1971, when it became officially
known as the State of Bahrain. At that time, a
constitution was approved and an elected national
assembly was created, but it was disbanded in
- It was then ruled as a conservative shaykh-
dom (emirate) until 2002, when the government
was reclassified as a monarchy and the national
assembly was reconstituted in response to Shii
demands for more participation in governance.
KuWAIT
Situated on the western side of where the Shatt
al-Arab waterway empties into the Persian Gulf,
Kuwait is bordered by Iraq to the north and Saudi
Arabia to the south. Its population is 2.6 million
(2008 est.), of whom as many as 60 percent are
nonnationals. Most of the people are Sunni Mus-
lims and followers of the maliki legal school.
About 25 percent are adherents of Twelve-Imam
Shiism; many of the country’s wealthy merchants
are Shiis with roots in Iraq and Iran. There is
a mixed population of non-Muslim residents,
including Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, and
Sikhs. Kuwait’s ruling family is the Al Sabah, who
are Sunni Arabs. They have played a leading role
in Kuwaiti affairs since the 18th century, when
Kuwait City, the capital, emerged as a regional
commercial center. Once closely allied to Otto-
man authorities in southern Iraq, they agreed to
become a British protectorate in 1899. The coun-
try achieved independence in 1961, and its gov-
ernment is classified as a constitutional monarchy,
which consists of a ruling emir from the Al Sabbah
and a national assembly. In reaction to opposition
and criticism from the assembly, however, the
emir has intervened to disband it several times
since the 1960s. Shiis in Kuwait became politically
active in the aftermath of the iranian revolUtion
oF 1978–1979. Some Shii radicalism was stirred
up by pro-Iranian agents, but activism has also
come about as a result of Shii frustration with the
lack of a proportional voice in national affairs. The
government has occasionally resorted to harsh
countermeasures, and eruptions of violence have
occurred. Sunni Islamist groups, some affiliated
with the mUslim brotherhood, have also formed
there. The government, as a result, has made some
concessions to such groups, such as supporting
conservative Islamic legislation with respect to
Women’s rights and alcohol consumption.
From August 1990 to March 1991, Iraq invaded
and annexed Kuwait on the orders of saddam
hUsayn, Iraq’s president. Although the Al Sabah
were able to escape, many Kuwaitis and nonna-
tionals suffered. The occupation was ended by an
armed international coalition of forces authorized
by the United Nations. During the 1990s, Kuwait
supported efforts to contain Husayn’s regime, and
it allowed the country to be used as a staging area
for the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq by a
second armed coalition, led by the United States
and Britain.OMAN
Located at the southeastern end of the Arabian
Peninsula at the Strait of Hormuz and on the
shores of the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea,
the Sultanate of Oman is the third-largest country
in the region. The UAE borders it in the north-
west, Saudi Arabia in the west, and Yemen in the
southwest. The country, whose capital is Musqat,
is ruled by a member of the Al Bu Said family,Gulf States 271 J