In the mid-20th century, the discovery of some of the largest oil reserves ever seen spurred rapid development throughout the Middle East. Around the same time, the British military withdrew from the region, and the states it left behind became increasingly cognizant of their vulnerability. In 1976, the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Iraq met in Muscat to discuss the creation of a joint security and defense policy for the Gulf region. As initially envisioned, the new organization, the GCC, would serve as an economic and security union spanning the Persian Gulf, uniting states whose economies were overwhelmingly driven by the same commodities: oil and natural gas. But in 1979, their designs were disrupted. The Islamic Revolution swept through Iran, installing a fundamental strain of Shiism as the governing doctrine of the state.