The Arab Cooperation Council (ACC) was founded on 16 February 1989 by North Yemen, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt.

The short-lived organization held at least 17 formal meetings at the summit or ministerial level in 1989 alone, in addition to dozens of working-level sessions.

In retrospect, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said that the security aspects of the ACC were probably designed by Iraq to lure Cairo into backing Saddam Hussein's foray into Kuwait.

[citation needed] Within weeks of the invasion of Kuwait, the ACC's Secretariat canceled upcoming organizational events and the grouping ceased to exist in anything but name.

Arab political pundit Mohamed Hassanein Heikal wrote in his book Illusions of Triumph (1992) that "The four leaders of the Arab Cooperation Council came [from] different and contradictory worlds, with outlooks so varied that they seemed improbable partners."