FROM JOSEPH FARAH'S G2 BULLETIN
'JILTED' SAUDIS CREATING JOINT ARAB FORCE TO COUNTER ISIS, IRAN
Seen as response to U.S. nuclear agreement with Tehran
F. Michael Maloof
WASHINGTON – Saudi Arabia is moving ahead with a plan to assemble a joint Arab intervention force to counter ISIS as Egypt and Libya fight off increased attacks in their countries by the jihadist army, which has declared the establishment of an Islamic state in parts of Syria and Iraq, according to a new report from Joseph Farah’s G2 Bulletin.
Riyadh’s initiative comes in response to the nuclear agreement the United States along with other Western countries recently reached with Shiite Iran, which is vying to extend its influence in the region. It’s a sharp change in policy, as the Saudis, for decades, have relied on assurances of U.S. security.
Regional analysts say the joint Arab force would allow the Arab nations to contend with what they envision as a more proactive Iran as a result of the nuclear accommodation with the U.S.
In developing their own rapid reaction force, the Saudis, along with the Egyptians, are looking to purchase two Mistral helicopter carriers from France, which originally had built them for the Russians but decided not to send them due to the Ukrainian crisis.
The carriers would fit well with the Saudi-led effort to create a unified Arab force to respond to threats in the region, whether from ISIS or from what it perceives to be Iranian encroachment in the Arab world.
The decision to create the joint Arab intervention force comes as the U.S. has turned down a request from the Arab League to extend the U.S.-led bombing coalition to hit ISIS targets in Libya and Egypt.
ISIS is seeking to establish itself in the Sinai in Egypt as it increases its hold in almost ungovernable Libya to establish a base from which it can proceed throughout the rest of Africa. Egypt recently launched its own airstrikes against ISIS targets in Libya following the beheading earlier this year of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christian men who were in neighboring Libya for work.
To date, the United States has turned down requests for airstrikes in those two countries, saying instead that the U.S.-led airstrikes will be confined to Syria and Iraq.
U.S. focused on Syria, Iraq as ISIS expands
In a recent interview with G2 Bulletin, then-Pentagon spokesman U.S. Army Col. Steve Warren said that the U.S. military had no plans to undertake the type of bombing it was conducting in Syria and Iraq outside of those two countries, even though ISIS is spreading into North Africa, the inner continent of Africa, the Caucasus, and Central and East Asia.
ISIS now has pledges of allegiance from groups with a presence in at least 12 countries.
“That is where our military strategy is focused,” Warren said in February, referring to the concentration of U.S.-led attacks on ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
“And the strategy, to put it simply, is to attack ISIL (ISIS) in Iraq using air power supported by Iraqi security forces on the ground to drive ISIL out of Iraq while simultaneously striking ISIL from the air in Syria in an effort to deny them safe haven. So, choke them in Syria, kill them in Iraq.”
To date, U.S. military policy hasn’t changed.
Read more at http://www.wnd.com/2015/08/jilted-saudis-creating-joint-arab-force-to-counter-isis-iran/#4cyKmfp4GV3vbvCX.99My comments: By his actions, Obama has decided to make Iran the Dominate Power in the Mideast. The Saudis and Egypt seem to understand this. They are on their own.
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