Arab meeting on joint army postponed again

Foreign and defense ministers from Arab states are to meet in the Arab League (AL) headquarters in Cairo Thursday to ratify a draft protocol for a joint-Arab force, Al-Ahram reported.

Countries that requested the Thursday meeting be postponed include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and Iraq, according to the statement.

The meeting was supposed to approve the protocol of forming an Arab joint force.

A new date for the meeting will be set later, the statement added.

At a summit in March, Arab leaders agreed to form the force, and army chiefs have already met twice in Cairo to work on the details.

It is not clear what the main reason behind the delay is, but media reports point to disagreements among member states on where to deploy such forces, if at all.

In 1950, members of the Arab League signed a joint defence agreement, which has been rarely enforced.

The coalition has been fighting the Shiite Houthi rebel group which seized parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

Egypt’s Sisi is reportedly pressing to for the formation of the joint force to see the light quickly, so as to toot it nationally as a “success” achieved by his controversial presidency.