Arab states have said they will try to assemble a unified military force to combat common threats across the Middle East, as Yemen was described as being ‘on the brink of the abyss’ at the Arab League summit.
Leaders say the region is now 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 concept, which is effectively a joint defence pact, was tabled by the Egyptian president, Abdel Fatah al-Sisi, at the summit in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm al-Sheikh, where all 22 members of the fractious body gathered on Sunday to discuss the myriad crises reverberating around the region.
“The Arab leaders have decided to agree on the principle of a joint Arab military force,” Sisi said.
The move was aimed primarily at the ongoing threat posed by the Islamic State (Isis), widely referred to in the Arab world with the pejorative term Daesh. It comes four days into a significant Saudi-led military intervention in Yemen, which was roundly backed by most states present, Iraq and Lebanon aside.
The Arab League chief, Nabil al-Arabi, said the risk posed by Isis would likely spread beyond the areas in which it now holds sway - eastern Syria, western Iraq and parts of Libya - if it were not robustly taken on.
Member states formed a rare consensus on tackling Isis, which in less than two years has become an existential crisis for the region and has deeply alarmed Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Egypt too is facing an Islamic insurgency, which its leaders repeatedly claim is linked to the terror group.
The unanimous position, however, quickly 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 in recent weeks.
At the summit’s closing session, al-Arabi said the Saudi-led air campaign would continue until all Houthi militias “withdraw and surrender their weapons,” and a strong unified Yemen returns.
“Yemen was on the brink of the abyss, requiring effective Arab and international moves after all means of reaching a peaceful resolution had been exhausted to end the Houthi coup and restore legitimacy,” al-Arabi said, reading from the final communique.
The ousted Yemeni president, Abid Rabbo Mansour Hadi, claimed earlier on Sunday that the Houthi movement, which is 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.
Riyadh views the Houthi takeover of Yemen as an attempt by Iran to expand its influence into the Sunni Arab world at a time when it is ascendant in Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. The attack on Yemen is an open spillover of a proxy war between the two regional powers, which has heightened as a possible nuclear agreement between Iran, Europe and the US nears. Riyadh fears that such a deal would embolden its arch rival.
Iran claims it does not directly back the Houthi movement, but has given it aid. Senior Iranian officials received a Houthi delegation earlier in March, shortly after the rebels had stormed through Yemen’s capital of Sana’a - a move siezed upon by Riyadh as evidence of an alliance. Tehran has spoken out strongly against the Saudi-led attack, as have Shia clerics in Iraq and the leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah.
Saudi jets, joined by air forces of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have since Thursday destroyed much of the Yemeni military hardware which had been seized by the Houthi rebels. Military officials claimed all ballistic missile launch sites in Sana’a and Aden have now been decimated, along with fighter jets, some of which were used to bomb the presidential palace and other state institutions.
Under the Sisi plan, military leaders from all member states will soon meet to thrash out the logistics of an Arab force. Despite the upfront claim that the unified force would be tailored to deal with Isis, however, the potential for it to be deployed in more divisive crises such as Yemen is likely to erode initial unity.
Iraq and Lebanon, both of which are under Iran’s sphere of influence, have already expressed reservations. The goal of creating a military body that defends the interests of members states has proved impossible in the Arab League’s 65 year history.