Mercury Daily Blog
“The coalition announced by Mohammed bin Salman is an effort to show Sunni-Muslim resolve against terrorism”, Theodore Karasik, a Dubai-based senior adviser at Gulf State Analytics.
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 created to drum up support for the U.S.-led campaign against Islamic State.
Saudi Arabia has formed a new military coalition of 34 countries – with participation from Middle-Eastern, African and Asian states – to fight terrorism in the Islamic world.
“Terrorism has hit Islamic countries”.
It said the alliance supports the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, which “calls for member states to cooperate to combat terrorism in all its forms … and rejects all justifications and excuses for terrorism”.
The Egyptian spokesman said that the meeting discussed the Islamic military alliance to combat terrorism and the latest regional developments in the region especially in Syria Yemen Libya. It requires very strong efforts to fight terrorism.
“We will confine terrorist organizations whatever might be their classification. In terms of operations in Syria and Iraq, we can’t undertake these operations without coordinating with legitimacy in this place and the worldwide community”, bin Salman said, without elaborating.
The new alliance comes amid pressure from US President Barack Obama to do more in the fight against ISIS.
“I think we are still waiting to understand a bit more of the details of it and how it’s going to work”. Some coalition members like Nigeria have mixed Muslim-Christian populations, but all belong to the Jeddah-based Organisation of Islamic Cooperation. Smaller member-states included in the coalition are the archipelago of Maldives and the Gulf island-nation of Bahrain.
Arab countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE have agreed to join the coalition.
Whether the new coalition amounts to any real change in fighting ISIS remains to be seen.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday announced the formation of an alliance of 34 Moslem countries against terror that includes Sudan.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel echoed widespread concerns this month when he said: “From Saudi Arabia, Wahhabi mosques are financed throughout the world”. He said their efforts would not be limited to only countering the ISIL group.
More than ten other Islamic countries have expressed their support for this alliance and will take the necessary measures in this regard, including Indonesia, the statement added.
POWER VACUUMS: Jubeir said that the coalition would not have a stand-alone army, as such.
