The Trump administration is planning a larger summit for the Gulf Co-operation Council this autumn, and current plans are under way to hold the meeting in mid October.

High level sources told The National that the summit would include all the GCC members as well as Egypt and Jordan.

While no firm date or venue has been set for the meeting, mid October is a likely time frame and the United States would host the gathering.

The agenda being discussed is primarily focused on security co-operation including maritime navigation and ballistic missile threats, as well as counter-aggression work mainly related to Iran, and efforts to counter extremism.

Visiting Washington this week is Abdel Aziz Aluwaisheg, the GCC's Assistant Secretary-General for Political & Negotiation Affairs.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, Mr Aluwaisheg said: "The timing of the summit and the agenda are still being discussed but the idea of the summit is alive and well."

Mr Aluwaisheg said the current emphasis was on "preparatory work, and meetings of the working groups".

He said he hoped that working groups from the GCC and the US "would meet over the next few weeks to generate the momentum and [to discuss] reasonable outcomes for the summit".

If these discussions were productive then the summit will most likely happen, he explained, but if they were not "then there is nothing to discuss".

But other sources have said that preparatory plans are under way to hold the summit in October.

Initially the Trump administration was hoping to convene the meeting at Camp David in May, but scheduling problems and focus on North Korea then forced a change in plans.

Mr Aluwaisheg said "countering terrorism, countering Iran, and energy cooperation" would define the agenda of the meeting.

The Qatar crisis, however, will not be part of the agenda, two high level sources told The National. They added that Washington sees the crisis is an inter-GCC dispute where Kuwait leads mediation on the issue.

Asked by The National about the Qatar crisis and the summit's agenda, Mr Aluwaisheg said: "In the GCC meeting of December 2017 there was an agreement to keep the mediation in a separate parallel track led by the Emir of Kuwait and that would continue to be the case."

Everything else, the GCC official said, is "business as usual and runs on a separate track".

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