The 34-member group, to be headquartered in Riyadh, will coordinate mutual anti-terrorism assistance for members “all over the Islamic world”, Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said in a rare news conference Tuesday.
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Calling Islamic extremism a disease, Saudi Arabia has announced the formation of a coalition of 34 predominately Muslim nations to fight terrorism.
“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 said.
The five ex-Soviet Central Asian states, meanwhile, seem to be content to sit on the sidelines of this, in spite of their frequent denunciations of Islamist terrorism and their genuine fears of it affecting their countries. The PA’s official military wing, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, is listed by the State Department as a terrorist organization.
In remarks to reporters after his national security team met on Monday at the Pentagon, Mr Obama, flanked by Vice-President Joe Biden and Defence Secretary Ashton Carter, said: “Just as the United States is doing more in this fight, just as our allies France, Germany and the United Kingdom, Australia and Italy are doing more, so must others. So they want to really minimize the risks”, Gerges said. The United States praised the creation of the new group.
Many regional powers are already involved in a similar campaign with the US-led coalition, forged in September 2014 with airstrikes against Daesh (ISIS) targets in Syria.
Pakistan on Wednesday welcomed formation of the 34-nation Saudi Arabia-led alliance against terrorism and said it was awaiting further details to decide the extent of its participation in different activities of the alliance.
“We are hitting them harder than ever”, he said in a second address on this issue following a seemingly ISIS-influenced attack in San Bernardino, California, that has raised questions about his strategy.
“From Morocco to Indonesia, Muslim countries are demonstrating a firm unified position in fighting those that tarnish the image of Islam”, he said.
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have, however, assumed the main roles in that coalition.
The kingdom has said military operations in Yemen were nearing an end, although fighting continued ahead of a ceasefire to begin at 0900 GMT Tuesday in conjunction with peace talks in Switzerland.
The fearsome alliance includes countries from Asia, Africa and the Arab world – but not Saudi’s regional rival Iran.
The new coalition includes nations with large and established armies such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt, as well as war-torn countries like Libya and Yemen. The only member of the coalition that does not have a majority Muslim population is Benin. “It is time that the Islamic world takes a stand”, said Jubeir.
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The Preventative official phoned Breitbart Jerusalem minutes after the initial call to report that his agency has not been given any specific instructions about engaging in anti-terror activities with the Saudi coalition.
