Saudi Arabia announces 34-state Islamic military alliance against terrorism
A new Saudi-led Islamic alliance to fight terrorism will share information and train, equip and provide forces if necessary for the fight against Islamic State militants, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said on December 15.
Saudi Arabia announced earlier on December 15 the formation of a 34-nation Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism, a move welcomed by the United States which has been urging a greater regional involvement in the campaign against the militants who control swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
“Nothing is off the table,” al-Jubeir said when asked whether the initiative could include troops on the ground.
“It depends on the requests that come, it depends on the need and it depends on the willingness of countries to provide the support necessary,” he told a news briefing in Paris.
A statement carried by Saudi state news agency SPA said the new coalition would have a joint operations center based in Riyadh to “coordinate and support military operations”.
The states it listed as joining the new coalition included Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and several African nations.
The list did not include Shi’ite Muslim Iran, the arch rival of Sunni Saudi Arabia for influence across 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.”
US Defense Secretary Ash Carter welcomed the announcement after arriving at Incirlik airbase in Turkey on December 15 at the start of a regional tour designed to drum up support for the US-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.