Saudi Arabia announced Islamic anti-terrorism coalition

Pakistan found itself in the crosshairs of Middle Eastern politics on Tuesday as Saudi Arabia named it as part of its newly formed 34-nation military alliance of Muslim countries meant to combat terrorism, without first getting its consent.

The coalition will tackle “the Islamic world’s problem with terrorism and will be a partner in the worldwide fight against this scourge” said Saudi defense minister and deputy crown prince Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud at a press conference in Riyadh.

While most of the Sunni countries have joined the coalition, Shia majority countries like Iran, Iraq and Syria who are engaged in the fight against Islamic State are not a part of the alliance.

Alliance member states are:Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the U.A.E, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladish, Benin, Chad, Togo, Turkey, Tunisia, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, Palestine, the Commoros, Qatar, Ivory Coast, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, the Maldives, Mali, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, the Niger, Nigeria and Yemen.

In recent weeks, media and politicians in Western countries have complained about what they see as Saudi Arabia’s failure to match their own focus on destroying Islamic State militarily or to combat its militant Islamist ideology. 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”.

The fearsome alliance includes countries from Asia, Africa and the Arab world – but not Saudi’s regional rival Iran.

Saudi’s King Salman “ordered that Saudi investments in Egypt exceed 30 billion riyals ($8 billion)” and that the kingdom “contribute in providing Egypt with its needs for petrol”, said a statement published by the Saudi Press Agency.

However, “what Saudi Arabia has announced is a military alliance, …”

The announcement of the coalition should be followed by tangible steps on the ground to form a joint command and military units to fight terrorist organisations on the ground wherever they are in the region, said the expert.

Meanwhile, UN brokered peace talks between Yemen’s internationally recognised government and the country’s Shiite rebels begun in Switzerland as the guns went quiet across Yemen and air raids from a Saudi-coalition targeting the rebels were halted.

Sounding a notably more strident tone, Obama said that the United States and its allies were taking the fight to Islamic State extremists in Iraq and Syria, but admitted that progress needed to come faster.