Saudi Arabia forms coalition of 34 Islamic countries to fight terrorism
The Saudi Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman
(IraqiNews.com) Baghdad – Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday the formation of anti–terrorism Islamic military coalition consisting of 34 countries, and assured that it will not carry out any military operations in Iraq or Syria without coordination with the Joint Operations Center that will be based in Riyadh.
The coalition announced in a statement that, “34 countries decided to form a military coalition led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, and decided to establish Joint Operations Center in Riyadh in order to coordinate and support military anti-terrorism operations, and to develop programs and methods needed to support these efforts.”
“The coalitionis formed as a result to the Organization of Islamic Cooperation Agreement to fight all forms, objectives, and causes of terrorism, as well as the performance of the duty to protect the nation from all terrorist organizations and armed groups whatever its doctrine and its title.” the statement added.
For his part, Saudi Crown Prince and Minister of Defense Mohammed bin Salman said at a press conference on Tuesday: “The new Islamic military coalition will dedicate efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan, but there are no indicators yet on mobilizing military efforts.”
Ben Salman added, “There is coordination with all international organizations and top states in the world regarding this issue,” stressing that, With respect to operations in Syria and Iraq, we cannot conduct operations there unless there is legitimacy coordination with the international community.”
The countries which are participating in the coalition, in addition to Saudi Arabia, according to the order in the statement are: Jordan, UAE, Pakistan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Benin, Turkey, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Djibouti, Senegal, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Gabon, Guinea , Palestine, The Union of Comoros, Qatar, Cote d’Ivoire, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mali, Malaysia, Egypt, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, and Yemen.
Noteworthy, Saudi Arabia and a number of Gulf countries engaged in a war for nine months, by launching hundreds of air strikes, against the “Houthis” in Yemen.