Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohamed bin Salman speaks during a news conference in Riyadh yesterday.
Reuters
Dubai/Paris
A new Saudi-led Islamic coalition will share information and train, equip and provide forces if necessary for the fight against militants such as Islamic State and Al Qaeda, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir said yesterday.
Saudi Arabia announced earlier in the day the formation of the 34-nation military alliance, a move welcomed by the United States which has been urging a greater regional involvement in the campaign against the IS militants who control swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria.
IS has mounted a series of attacks on Shia mosques and security forces in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
“Nothing is off the table,” al-Jubeir said when asked whether the initiative could include troops on the ground.
“It depends on the requests that come, it depends on the need and it depends on the willingness of countries to provide the support necessary,” he told a news briefing in Paris.
Jubeir said the new coalition would have a joint operations centre based in Riyadh with a twin track of military, security and intelligence on the one hand and ideology on the other. The details would be completed in the coming weeks.
States in the list included Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan and several African nations, including Nigeria, which is fighting Islamist group Boko Haram.
“The objective of this coalition is to bring all these countries together and say we recognise there is a problem and that action is required,” Jubeir said after attending a meeting in Paris to discuss the Syrian crisis.
Jubeir said that the coalition would not have a stand-alone army, as such.
“If countries need help they can come and request that assistance and countries that can provide that assistance can provide that assistance and it will depend on a case by case basis,” Jubeir said. “There is no limit.”
Citing the example of Libya, where IS has been able to take advantage of political rivalries, he added that neighbours of countries that had power vacuums could also request for help if needed.
An earlier Saudi statement cited “a duty to protect the Islamic nation from the evils of all terrorist groups and organisations, whatever their sect and name, which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorise the innocent”.
US Defence Secretary Ash Carter welcomed the announcement after arriving at Incirlik airbase in Turkey yesterday at the start of a regional tour designed to drum up support for the US-led campaign against IS.
“... it appears it is very much in line with something we’ve been urging for quite some time, which is greater involvement in the campaign to combat ISIL (Islamic State) by Sunni Arab countries,” Carter told reporters.
In a rare press conference yesterday in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohamed bin Salman said the new coalition aimed to “co-ordinate” efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.
“There will be international co-ordination with major powers and international organisations ... In terms of operations in Syria and Iraq, we can’t undertake these operations without co-ordinating with legitimacy in this place and the international community,” Prince Mohamed said, without elaborating.