Saudi Arabia announces 34-state Islamic military alliance against terrorism

“It is time that the Islamic world take a stand, and they have done that by creating a coalition to push back and confront the terrorists and those who promote their violent ideologies”, said Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi’s foreign minister, speaking in Paris.

SPA quoted an official statement as saying that the countries mentioned in the statement “have decided on the formation of a military alliance to fight terrorism, with a joint operations center based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations”.

The statement said terrorism is a “serious violation of human dignity and rights, especially the right to life and the right to security”, and that “acts of corruption and terrorism can not be justified in any way”.

Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman presented the formation of the coalition during a press conference on Tuesday.

“We have a number of countries suffering from terrorism, including Syria, Iraq, Sinai (Egypt), Yemen, Libya, Mali, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Afghanistan”.

The spokesman said that Pakistan had consistently supported all the regional and global efforts to combat militancy, extremism and terrorism and, to this end, had extended full support and cooperation to the worldwide community.

Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Shia-majority Iran, is not part of the coalition, suggesting that the group will be used in part to counter Tehran’s influence in hotspot countries like Syria and Yemen – where the two support opposite sides in the wars.

“Currently, every Muslim country is fighting terrorism individually”, the Saudi defense minister said.

He added that the coalition will coordinate with the major world powers and global organisations, according to Reuters.

 The military alliance will not be limited to fighting Islamic State, but tackling terrorism more broadly. But, such countries will have to go through a detailed process before joining the coalition.

The coalition’s 33 other countries are: Egypt, Qatar, the UAE, Turkey, Jordan, Yemen, Bangladesh, Benin, Chad, Togo, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea, Palestine, The Comoros, Côte d’Ivoire, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Libya, Niger, Bahrain, Tunisia, Nigeria, and The Maldives.

“We are not looking for any involvement outside our region”, army spokesman Lt Gen Asim Bajwa had said last month while replying to a question about the possibility of Pakistan becoming part of a US-led coalition against IS.

Bin Salman said the states would work together to target “any terrorist organisation, not just ISIL” in countries including Iraq, Syria.