Small Wars Journal

U.S., Mideast Allies Explore Arab Military Coalition

Wed, 02/15/2017 - 6:52am

U.S., Mideast Allies Explore Arab Military Coalition by Maria Abi-Habib, Wall Street Journal

The Trump administration is in talks with Arab allies about having them form a military alliance that would share intelligence with Israel to help counter their mutual foe, Iran, according to several Middle Eastern officials.

The alliance would include countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates that are avowed enemies of Israel as well as Egypt and Jordan, which have longstanding peace treaties with Israel, according to five officials from Arab countries involved in the discussions. Other Arab countries could also join the alliance.

For the Arab countries involved, the alliance would have a NATO-style mutual-defense component under which an attack on one member would be treated as an attack on all, though details are still being worked out, the officials said.

The U.S. would offer military and intelligence support to the alliance, beyond the kind of limited backing it has been providing to a Saudi-led coalition fighting Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen, the officials said. But neither the U.S. nor Israel would be part of the mutual-defense pact…

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