GCC-UK breakthrough boosts prospects of EU deal

The eyes of much of the world have been on the Iran crisis in recent months. However, a very different development in the Middle East, also with international implications, arrived recently with the landmark UK-Gulf Cooperation Council trade deal. The agreement is a genuine breakthrough, after long talks, driven in part by the economic challenges still unfolding as a result of the Iran crisis. The GCC has signed few such trade deals, including one pact with South Korea in 2023 that was sealed more than a decade and a half after talks began.