Arab states have said they will try to assemble a unified military force to combat common threats across the Middle East, which leaders say is more volatile and polarised than at any point in at least 35 years.
The mooted force would be 40,000 strong, based in Cairo or Riyadh and would be deployed to counter threats anywhere from Libya to Yemen.
The joint defence pact was tabled by the Egyptian president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, at an Arab League summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh, where all 22 members of the fractious body gathered yesterday to discuss the myriad crises reverberating around the region.
The move was aimed primarily at the ongoing threat posed by Islamic State.
The Arab League chief, Nabil al-Arabi, said the risk posed by IS would likely spread beyond areas where it now holds sway – eastern Syria, western Iraq and parts of Libya – if it was not robustly taken on.
Member states formed a rare consensus on tackling IS, which in less than two years has become an existential crisis for the region.
The unanimous position, however, faltered on the region’s other major crisis – the attack launched four days ago by Saudi Arabia and 10 allies on neighbouring Yemen, where an insurgency led by Houthi rebels has overrun much of the country.
The ousted Yemeni president, Abid Rabbo Mansour Hadi, claimed yesterday that the Houthi movement, part of a Zaid Shia sect, was backed by Iran – a view widely held by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the Gulf states and the central reason for such a robust response.
– (Guardian Service)