Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, according to a joint statement published by the SPA state news agency, in a move welcomed by the United States.
The United States has been increasingly outspoken about its view that Gulf Arab states should do more to support the military campaign against the Islamic State militant group based in Iraq and Syria.
“The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations centre based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations,” said the statement carried by SPA.
The countries it listed included Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and several African nations as well Gulf Arab states.
The list did not include Shi’ite Muslim Iran, the arch rival of Sunni Saudi Arabia for influence in the Arab world. Tehran and Riyadh are ranged on opposite sides in proxy conflicts in Syria and Yemen.
The statement cited “a duty to protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organizations, whatever their sect and name, which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorize the innocent.” U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter welcomed the announcement after arriving at Incirlik airbase in Turkey on Tuesday at the start of a regional tour designed to drum up support for the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State.
“We look forward to learning more about what Saudi Arabia has in mind in terms of this coalition,” he told reporters.
“But in general it appears it is very much in line with something we’ve been urging for quite some time, which is greater involvement in the campaign to combat ISIL (Islamic State) by Sunni Arab countries,” Carter added.
Islamic State has pledged to overthrow the monarchies of the Gulf and has also mounted a series of attacks on Shi’ite Muslim mosques and security forces in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
“INTERNATIONAL COORDINATION” In a rare press conference on Tuesday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s 30-year-old deputy crown prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman said the new coalition aimed to “coordinate” efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.
“There will be international coordination with major powers and international organisations … In terms of operations in Syria and Iraq, we can’t undertake these operations without coordinating with legitimacy in this place and the international community,” bin Salman said, without elaborating.
He offered few concrete indications of how the new coalition’s military efforts might proceed.
Asked if the new alliance would focus only on Islamic State, bin Salman said it would confront “any terrorist organisation that appears in front of us”.
Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab neighbours have been waging war for nine months against Iran-allied rebels in Yemen, launching hundreds of air strikes there.
A ceasefire took effect in Yemen on Tuesday as parties to the civil war began United Nations-sponsored peace talks in Switzerland in a new push to end fighting that has killed nearly 6,000 people.
