Arab League unveils joint military force amid Yemen crisis

[webfact]

Arab League unveils joint military force amid Yemen crisis
By HAMZA HENDAWI

SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt (AP) — A two-day Arab summit ended Sunday with a vow to defeat Iranian-backed Shiite rebels in Yemen and the formal unveiling of plans to form a joint Arab intervention force, setting the stage for a potentially dangerous clash between U.S.-allied Arab states and Tehran over influence in the region.

Arab leaders taking turns to address the gathering spoke repeatedly of the threat posed to the region's Arab identity by what they called moves by "foreign" or "outside parties" to stoke sectarian, ethnic or religious rivalries in Arab states — all thinly-veiled references to Iran, which has in recent years consolidated its hold in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and now Yemen.

The summit's final communique made similarly vague references, but the Arab League chief, Nabil Elaraby, was unequivocal during a news conference later, singling out Iran for what he said was its intervention "in many nations."

A summit resolution said the newly unveiled joint Arab defense 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.

The agreement came as U.S. and other Western diplomats were pushing to meet a Tuesday deadline to reach a deal with Iran that would restrict its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

The Saudis and their allies in the Gulf fear that a nuclear deal between Washington and Tehran will free Iran's hands to bolster its influence in places like Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and in Sunni-ruled Bahrain, which has a Shiite majority. They believe the air campaign in Yemen and a joint Arab force would empower them to stand up to what they see as Iran's bullying. The United States has sought to offer reassurances that a nuclear deal does not mean that Washington will abandon them, but they remain skeptical.

The Houthis swept down from their northern strongholds last year and captured Yemen's capital, Sanaa, in September. 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 on Saturday, Hadi accused Iran of being behind the Houthi offensive, raising the specter of a regional conflict. 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."

A Saudi-led coalition began bombing Yemen on Thursday, saying it was targeting the Houthis and their allies, which include forces loyal to Yemen's former leader, Ali Abdullah Saleh. Yemeni military officials have said the campaign could pave the way for a possible ground invasion, a development that Egyptian military officials say would likely commence after the airstrikes significantly diminish the military capabilities of the Houthis and their allies.

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 told a news conference Sunday.

Military experts will decide when and if a ground operation is needed, Yassin said. "This is a comprehensive operation and (any ground offensive) will depend on the calculations of the military," he said.

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.

At the summit's closing session, Elaraby said the Saudi-led air campaign would continue until all Houthi militias "withdraw and surrender their weapons," and a strong unified Yemen returns.

"Yemen was on the brink of the abyss, requiring effective Arab and international moves after all means of reaching a peaceful resolution had been exhausted to end the Houthi coup and restore legitimacy," Elaraby said, reading from the final communique.

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said the leaders from 22 nations also agreed to create a joint Arab military force whose structure and operational mechanism will be worked out by a high-level panel under the supervision of Arab chiefs of staff.

Elaraby said the 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.

"There is a political will to create this force and not to leave its creation without a firm time frame," Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri told a news conference.

The 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.

However, it is unlikely that all 22 member nations of the often-fractious Arab League will join the proposed force. Creation of such a force has been a longtime goal that has eluded Arab nations in the 65 years since they signed a rarely used joint defense agreement.

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

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 told reporters. Airstrikes hit Houthi targets throughout Sunday, including air defenses, ammunition depots, and heavy weapons and vehicles the rebels had taken from government forces.

"The coalition operations in the coming days will increase pressure on the Houthi militias by targeting them. Whether it's individual or group movement, there will no longer be any safe place in Yemen for the Houthi militias," he told a news conference in Riyadh.

On Saturday, he said the strikes had targeted Scud missiles in Yemen, leaving most of their launching pads "devastated," though he warned that the rebels could have more missiles.

Meanwhile, Pakistan dispatched a plane Sunday to the Yemeni city of 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.

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."
___

Associated Press writers Ahmed al-Haj in Sanaa, Munir Ahmed in Islamabad, Muneeza Naqvi in New Delhi and Jon Gambrell in Cairo contributed to this report.


-- (c) Associated Press 2015-03-30

[NeverSure]

What a massive screwup by Obama. He has abandoned the traditional allies of the West in favor of lifting sanctions against warmongering Iran and even the allies don't trust him now. Who would?

The allies know exactly what Iran is and what it's doing but Obama and his butt lickers can't see it.

Thank you, Obama. Geez.

[Mosha]

It's not the Iranians radicalising the muslims in the West.

[Publicus]

The Arab League has recognized it must police its own region.

The Arab Joint Military Force consists of US allies.

They are intervening in Yemen, where the US had alone supported the anti-terrorist, anti-Iran government that is now overthrown over there.

Bahrain for instance, which hosts the US 5th Naval Fleet reactivated in 1997, received recent intervention assistance from the Saudi armed forces in suppressing a revolt. US allied governments over there learned something from that, and they are now applying it in far broader and effective terms.

United States Navy personnel performing morning colors at US 5th Fleet Naval Headquarters in Bahrain in 2005.

Let 'em police their own region as allies of the United States.

In other words, support your local police.

[Credo]

What a massive screwup by Obama. He has abandoned the traditional allies of the West in favor of lifting sanctions against warmongering Iran and even the allies don't trust him now. Who would?

The allies know exactly what Iran is and what it's doing but Obama and his butt lickers can't see it.

Thank you, Obama. Geez.

Geez, Obama lifted the sanctions? I wonder why it hasn't been reported by anyone else.

[sdanielmcev]

Glad to see them striking back at the bully on the block. Hope they realize the enemy isn' the West, but themselves

[rethaier]

What a massive screwup by Obama. He has abandoned the traditional allies of the West in favor of lifting sanctions against warmongering Iran and even the allies don't trust him now. Who would?

The allies know exactly what Iran is and what it's doing but Obama and his butt lickers can't see it.

Thank you, Obama. Geez.

massive screw-up and butt lickers can't see it. Do you really believe that. This is no screw-up, it's a screw you from the US president. He knows exactly what he is doing and it is not for the good of HIS people.

[Publicus]

From the standpoint of foreign policy and war and peace, Barack Obama was elected and re-elected to get the United States out of two big foreign wars and to scale down and back the historical role of the United States as the world's policeman.

The right can't have it both ways, which is for the US to be the world's policeman while balancing the federal government budget back home.

It has taken the Arab monarchies and other dictatorships of the ME several years to catch the new drift from Washington that the US isn't going to put its blood and treasure on the line to protect the proliferation of royal rulers and dictators, or the extensive estates and personal fortunes of either.

The news for the rabble of leaders of the ME and their peoples is that they have to do their own police work from this point in history forward. These are anyway US allies forming their own joint military policing force so the far right budget balancers cum warhawks in the US need to support the local police and the regional self-policing over there.

No more Mr. Nice Guy in Washington.

[rgs2001uk]

Well done Mr Prez.

This has cost the US taxpayer how many $$$$$, ,how many poor innocent souls on the ground, answer ZERO, ZILCH.

Well done MR Prez, a true American hero, their backyard, let them clean it up themselves.

[NeverSure]

From the standpoint of foreign policy and war and peace, Barack Obama was elected and re-elected to get the United States out of two big foreign wars and to scale down and back the historical role of the United States as the world's policeman.

Yeah, he just announced that the troop withdrawal from Afghan. would slow. After more than 6 years. He actually escalated that war. Your point is?

Obama is cavorting with the enemy of the allies of the US and trying to remove sanctions from them because?

Well?

[Publicus]

1) Prez Obama ended the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq but the war's full impact in the region, globally, for the US military, continues to unfold. The old answer to start a "Mission Accomplished" war that invariably becomes yet another long unending war of American blood and treasure is entirely discredited.....ask the US Naval Academy grad John McCain who said he'd keep the US in Iraq "for as long as it takes." Wrong John and wrong for the next guy like him who wants to be prez.

2) This Arab joint force of US allies to police their own neighborhoods in their own region is a radical historic breakthrough that significantly and substantially reduces the US role as the world's policeman, effectively ending it already.

3) Prez Obama wants out of Afghanistan so has revised and reduced the role there, even after only reluctantly authorizing a surge advocated and strongly pushed by the high muckety muck generals and which flopped. The president has fired a couple of generals in command there and he is still looking for a general who can settle that war similarly to how Ike settled the Korean Conflict (1950-53) and which the US hasn't had since. All Prez Obama can find out of the USMA are prima donna McArthur variants who are sure they know how to win WW2 again if they themselves could only fight it again.

4) If there is no nuclear deal with Iran, the US will catch global hell if it sooner or later has to bomb the fortified underground reactors and other heavily fortified underground sites. If there is an agreement, and if Iran violates it, there will of course be opposition to the US doing bombing, but the international reaction will give much greater and stronger support than if there were no agreement and bombing. The blah blah blah about the US easily penetrating those deep and heavily fortified sites, short of small yield nuclear weapons, remains exactly blah blah blah....the Pentagon is not certain it can penetrate those sites using its most powerful current generation bunker busters. That you will present reams of awesome looking data to the contrary is just not realistic because it is overstated, especially coming from a suburban middle class self-appointed keyboard warrior general.

[DiamondKing]

Let them blow the crap out of each other they are all as bad as each other you have the Iranian War mongers killing and maiming all over then you have the Saudis who are no angels either radicalizing and funding mosques throughout the west and they all have the same ultimate goal a caliphate with Islam at the helm.

Problem is one does not think the other is a real muslim but they all agree we are infidels.

[jethro69]

Finally the ghosts Salman ibn Abd al-Aziz Al Saud has called come to haunt him.....

[JemJem]

The West (well, some countries anyway) is playing a dangerous game in Yemen, by assisting or giving approval to the Saudi-led aggression in Yemen. Large parts of Yemen are already controlled by Al-Qaeda (and possibly other extremist groups). The defeat or the weakening of the Shiite Houthi rebels will most probably cause the Sunni extremist Al-Qaeda to get even stronger and pose even a greater threat to the region and the world overall.

One must think of the Sunni-Shiite balance (or IMBALANCE, rather). For many years now, most of the Islamist threat in the world comes from Sunni groups, not Shiite groups. Yes, there is the Shiite Hezbollah financed by Iran, but just look at the others : ISIL, Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra (and other extremists in Syria), Boko Haram, Al Shabab : these are all Sunni. And, also consider sectarian troubles; for example in Pakistan, the violence is ALMOST ALWAYS Sunni on Shiite; most of the time, it is the Shiite worship places which are targeted by terrorists.

No offence to ordinary Sunnis. I hope it is clear from my post that I mean the fundamentalist groups.

Edited April 5, 2015 by JemJem

[BKKBobby]

One must think of the Sunni-Shiite balance (or IMBALANCE, rather). For many years now, most of the Islamist threat in the world comes from Sunni groups, not Shiite groups. Yes, there is the Shiite Hezbollah financed by Iran, but just look at the others : ISIL, Al-Qaeda, Al-Nusra (and other extremists in Syria), Boko Haram, Al Shabab : these are all Sunni. And, also consider sectarian troubles; for example in Pakistan, the violence is ALMOST ALWAYS Sunni on Shiite; most of the time, it is the Shiite worship places which are targeted by terrorists.

True, but dont expect to get any believers. Saudi Arabia is a moderate muslim allied country, right?