Arab states agree to form military force

Joint action aims to counter Iran sway without U.S. aid

Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby, left, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri give a press conference at the conclusion of an Arab summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt, Sunday, March 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell)
Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby, left, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri give a press conference at the conclusion of an Arab summit meeting in Sharm el-Sheikh, South Sinai, Egypt, Sunday, March 29, 2015. (AP Photo/Thomas Hartwell)

CAIRO -- The Arab states said Sunday that they had agreed to form a joint military force to counter both Iranian influence and Islamist extremism, a gesture many analysts attributed in large part to their drive for more independence from Washington.

The agreement came as U.S. and other Western diplomats in Lausanne, Switzerland, were racing to beat a self-imposed deadline of Tuesday to reach a deal with Iran that would restrict its nuclear program in exchange for the removal of economic sanctions. In response, Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies in the region have made clear that they are seeking to bolster independent regional security measures because they see the proposed accord as a betrayal of Washington's commitment to their security.

Regardless of Iran's nuclear program, they say, the deal would do nothing to stop Iran from seeking to extend its influence around the region by backing favored factions, as it has done in Lebanon, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen.

Many of the Arab states, including Egypt, Jordan and most of the Persian Gulf monarchies, have thrown their support behind a Saudi Arabia-led campaign of airstrikes to counter advances by an Iranian-backed Houthi movement in Yemen. Washington is providing only intelligence and logistical support, but Saudi Arabia is leading the bombing while Egypt, with the largest Arab army, has pledged to send ground troops "if necessary."

How the agreement, announced at a meeting of the League of Arab States in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, will be implemented remains to be seen. Arab military chiefs are expected to work out more of the details.

A meeting resolution said the force would be deployed at the request of any Arab nation facing a national security threat and that it would also be used to combat terrorist groups.

Officials of the Arab League said the leadership of the joint force, including the question of whether there might be a single command or a coalition of national units, was still under discussion. Each country's participation is expected to be voluntary.

But the proposal gained credibility because it was announced in part by the Egyptian president, Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the former general who led the country's military takeover in 2013.

"We will work together to develop collective mechanisms necessary to protect Arab national security," el-Sissi said.

The idea has long been touted by Arabs, though regional rivalries have repeatedly stymied efforts to set up such a force among the league's 22 member nations. El-Sissi has been promoting the idea for months, in part amid Arab frustration over international reluctance to intervene in Libya.

League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby said the Arab chiefs of staff would meet within a month and would have an additional three months to work out the details before presenting their proposal to a meeting of the Arab League's Joint Defense Council. Preparations for the force will be under the auspices of Kuwait, Egypt and Morocco -- the former, present and next chairs of the Arab League.

"It is an important resolution given all the unprecedented unrest and threats endured by the Arab world," Elaraby said.

Egyptian military and security officials have said the proposed force would consist of up to 40,000 elite troops backed by jet fighters, warships and light armor and would be headquartered in either Cairo or Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

Iraq, whose Shiite government is closely allied with non-Arab and Shiite Iran, has said more time is needed to discuss the proposed force.

Leaders haven't determined how this force will be used, Elaraby said, while ruling out intervention in Syria's civil war.

"Who will you intervene against? The Syrian situation is very complicated, and there are non-Arab parties in it," he said. Intervention on behalf of the Palestinians in their conflict with Israel wasn't discussed, he said.

Yemen strikes continue

Elaraby vowed that the Saudi-led airstrikes against the Houthi movement would continue until the Houthis had surrendered.

The campaign "will continue until all Houthi militias retreat and disarm, and a strong unified Yemen returns," he said.

The Houthi movement, which originated in the north of Yemen and follows a strain of Shiite Islam, has seized control of the country's capital, Sanaa, and other large cities in part by allying itself with military and security forces still loyal to Yemen's former strongman, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Saleh was removed in 2012, after an Arab Spring uprising, in a transitional deal brokered by Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states.

Saleh called for the "barbaric" airstrikes to end in a speech Saturday. He said only talks under the Arab League or United Nations would resolve the crisis.

Embattled Yemeni President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, a close U.S. ally against a powerful local al-Qaida affiliate, first fled to the southern city of Aden before fleeing the country last week as the rebels closed in.

Speaking at the summit Saturday, Hadi accused Iran of being behind the Houthi offensive. Iran and the Houthis deny that Tehran arms the rebel movement, though both acknowledge the Islamic Republic is providing humanitarian and other aid.

On Sunday, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Adel al-Jubeir, said the Lebanese Hezbollah militia was also supporting the Houthis. The Saudi-led campaign, he said on NBC's Meet the Press, is to protect Yemen's "legitimate government from a group that is allied and supported by Iran and Hezbollah."

Saudi Arabia doesn't rule out a ground invasion, and "we have sufficient forces in the current coalition, if need be, to go into Yemen," al-Jubeir said. "But right now, the objective is being achieved through an air campaign."

Yemen's foreign minister, Riad Yassin, said the air campaign, code-named Operation Decisive Storm, had prevented the rebels from using the weaponry they seized to attack Yemeni cities or to target neighboring Saudi Arabia with missiles. It also stopped Iran's supply line to the rebels, he said during a news conference Sunday.

Military experts will decide when and if a ground operation is needed, Yassin said.

At least 40 Houthis were killed in fighting with forces loyal to Hadi in the southern province of Shabwa on Sunday, while the Saudi-led coalition bombed missile launchers near the port of al-Mukha on the Bab al-Mandab strait, a key shipping route, according to Al Jazeera television. Hadi's forces said Saturday they regained control of the international airport in Aden from the rebels.

Now in its fourth day, the Saudi-led air campaign has pushed Houthi rebels out of contested air bases, Saudi Brig. Gen. Ahmed bin Hasan Asiri said. Airstrikes hit Houthi targets throughout Sunday, including air defenses, ammunition depots, and heavy weapons and vehicles the rebels had taken from government forces.

Iran has condemned the airstrikes against its Yemeni allies but so far has not responded with military action, though diplomatic and military officials said Iranian retaliation could not be ruled out.

"Iran for the first time in a very long time is basically seeing a counterattack. The Iranians were not expecting that Gulf monarchies, like Saudi Arabia, would be so bold as to confront this head on," one Gulf official said.

The Saudi-led airstrikes "tore to pieces their game plan with regard to the Houthis, and they are not going to accept that," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Yemen's Interior Ministry, controlled by the Houthis, said that at least 13 people were killed and more than 50 injured in the latest Saudi-led airstrikes, which hit targets including the capital Sanaa, the northern Houthi base of Saada, and the Red Sea port of Hodeida.

Meanwhile, Pakistan dispatched a plane Sunday to Hodeida, to try to evacuate some 500 citizens gathered there, said Shujaat Azim, an adviser to Pakistan's prime minister. Azim told state-run Pakistan Television more flights would follow as those controlling Yemen's airports allowed them. Pakistan says some 3,000 of its citizens live in Yemen.

Bombing of Hodeida was suspended to enable the evacuation of Pakistani citizens, Ahmed Asseri, a Saudi military officer and spokesman for the coalition, said at a press briefing Sunday.

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj also tweeted Sunday: "We are doing everything to evacuate our people from Yemen at the earliest by all routes -- land, sea and air."

Information for this article was contributed by David D. Kirkpatrick and Merna Thomas of The New York Times; by Tarek El-Tablawy, Ahmed Feteha, Salma El Wardany Mohammed Hatem and Nafeesa Syeed of Bloomberg News; and by Hamza Hendawi, Ahmed al-Haj, Munir Ahmed, Muneeza Naqvi and Jon Gambrell of The Associated Press.

A Section on 03/30/2015

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