Arab Cooperation Council

The Arab Cooperation Council was an international political and economic organisation of four Arab states, Iraq, Jordan, North Yemen and Egypt, founded on 16 February 1989 to pursue closer economic cooperation and integration among its members, to offer an alternative grouping to the Gulf Cooperation Council which excluded them, and to help bring Egypt back into mainstream Arab politics after its peace treaty with Israel. The Council collapsed within weeks of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, its secretariat cancelling planned events as a lack of shared geopolitical interest among the member states proved unable to survive Iraq's regional aggression; Egypt formally suspended its membership in early 1994.