Arabs agree on joint military force to face challenges

SHARM EL SHEIKH, Egypt: Arab leaders agreed on Sunday to form a joint military force after a summit dominated by a Saudi-led offensive on Houthi Shia rebels in Yemen and the threat from Islamist extremism.
Arab representatives will meet over the next month to study the creation of the force and present their findings to defence ministers within four months, according to the resolution adopted by the leaders.
“Assuming the great responsibility imposed by the great challenges facing our Arab nation and threatening its capabilities, the Arab leaders had decided to agree on the principle of a joint Arab military force,” Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi told the summit in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The decision was mostly aimed at fighting the Jihadists who have overrun swathes of Iraq and Syria and secured a foothold in Libya, Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi said ahead of the summit.
On Sunday, Arabi told the meeting the region was threatened by a “destructive” force that threatened “ethnic and religious diversity”, in an apparent reference to the Islamic State group.
“What is important is that today there is an important decision, in light of the tumult afflicting the Arab world,” he said.Egypt had pushed for the creation of the rapid response force to fight the militants, and the matter gained urgency this week after Saudi Arabia and Arab allies launched air strikes on Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Arabi, reading a statement at the conclusion of the summit, said the offensive would continue until the Houthis withdraw from regions they have overrun and surrender their weapons.Several Arab states, including Egypt, are taking part in the military campaign, which Saudi King Salman said on Saturday would continue until the Yemeni people “enjoy security”.
Yemeni President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi at the start of the summit called for the offensive to end only when the Houthis “surrender”, calling the rebel leader an Iranian “puppet”.However, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged the leaders to find a peaceful resolution in Yemen.
“It is my fervent hope that at this Arab League summit, leaders will lay down clear guidelines to peacefully resolve the crisis in Yemen,” he said.James Dorsey, a Middle East analyst with the Singapore-based S Rajaratnam School of International Studies, said that despite support for a joint-Arab force, “it would still take months to create and then operate on an ad-hoc basis.”
Sisi said in a recent interview that the proposal for a joint force was welcomed especially by Jordan, which might take part alongside Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.
Aaron Reese, deputy research director at the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, said “each of these countries would bring a different capability.
“The Jordanians are well known for their special forces capability... the Egyptians of course have the most manpower and bases close to Libya.”
Meanwhile, in Cairo, Yemen’s foreign minister ruled out any dialogue with Houthi rebels until President Abedrabbo´s government retakes full control of the country.Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said there could be “no negotiations and dialogue until the legitimate government has control over all Yemeni lands”.
“Any party that wants to talk about dialogue has to first give up weapons seized from bases and return them to the state,” he told Egyptian state television in an interview.Meanwhile, in Aden, at least 38 people were killed on Sunday in clashes between rebel forces and tribes near a southern oil region in Yemen, a security official and tribal sources said.
The fighting erupted when tribesmen attacked positions held by Houthi rebels near the oil-rich area of Usaylan in Shabwa province, the sources said.“The Houthis and their allies (troops loyal to ex-strongman Ali Abdullah Saleh) have lost 30 of their men in fighting that killed eight tribesmen,” the security official said. Tribal sources confirmed the toll.
The clashes come as Saudi-led coalition warplanes pound rebel positions across Yemen in a four-day-old campaign to try to prevent the fall of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi.Meanwhile, in Sanaa, Saudi-led warplanes bombed Yemen’s main international airport and struck a renegade troop base in the capital.
The raids on the country’s main air gateway came just hours after the UN workers were evacuated following deadly fighting that has sent tensions between Tehran and other Middle East powers soaring.
In the capital, witnesses reported hearing three loud explosions and seeing a large fire when Sanaa International Airport was bombed during a fourth night of Saudi-led raids.“This was the first time they hit the runway” since the campaign began, an aviation source said. “The airport is completely out of service.”
Overnight air strikes hit the headquarters of the rebel republican guard at Al-Subaha base in Sanaa, killing 15 soldiers, a military official said.The Huthis are backed by army units loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who stepped down in 2012 after a year-long popular uprising and is accused of supporting the rebels.
The latest Saudi-led strikes also targeted an airbase in rebel-held Hudaida, witnesses said.Other raids targeted a base of the First Artillery Brigade in Saada, the northern stronghold of the Houthis.