Confusion shrouds Saudi coalition against Daesh

Pakistan has expressed its surprise to hear that Saudi Arabia this week had declared it a part of a recently-formed 34-nation alliance against terrorism.

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al Jubeir said that the participating countries would themselves decide about the extent of their participation.

The video comes after Saudi Arabia announced it had brokered the formation of a 34-state Islamic military coalition to combat terrorism.

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 ISIS militarily or combating its ideology. “The only thing that needs to be decided is the extent of our participation in various activities of the alliance”. The crown prince’s statements make this clear; the campaign would “coordinate” efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.

This is not the first time that Saudi Arabia has named Pakistan as part of its military alliances without Islamabad’s knowledge and consent. Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Chaudhry told journalists that he got to know of the coalition through news reports, adding that Pakistan was not consulted about it, Dawn newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A long list of Arab countries such as Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, together with Islamic countries like Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and African states were mentioned as allies.

He said that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoyed close brotherly relations and had been cooperating with each other in various fields including fight against terrorism.

Meanwhile, the alliance doesn’t include Iran – one of the most influential countries in the region actively fighting the IS terrorist organization as part of a coalition that includes Russia, Syria and Iraq.