GCC citizens can travel to Saudi using ID cards

Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it would allow citizens from its five partners in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to enter its territory using their identity cards.

Saudi nationals can also travel to all other GCC members using their ID instead of passports, said Lt Colonel Badr Al Malik, a spokesman for the Saudi Passports Department in Riyadh.

“Saudi citizens can now travel to the other GCC countries using only their ID while nationals from the other GCC members can also use ID to enter Saudi Arabia,” he told the Saudi Arabic language daily 'Aleqtisadiah'.

But Malik stressed that those using their IDs for travelling to any GCC nation must also return on ID instead of their passports.

Malik’s comments came two days after citizens from Saudi Arabia and nearby Kuwait began moving into their respective countries on ID following the signing of an agreement between the two GCC members.

The GCC groups the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman in an economic, defence and political alliance created in 1981.

The six countries, which control nearly 45 per cent of the world’s oil, signed a pact in 1984 to merge their economies.

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