News Analysis: Formation of joint force "strategic necessity" for Arab world

The imminent formation of an Arab joint military force represents "a strategic necessity" for the Arab world amid the ongoing security threats and growing terrorism in the Middle East region, said Egyptian security experts.

On Saturday, Egypt hosted a second meeting of Arab military chiefs of staff to discuss the formation of a joint Arab military force to combat terrorism and protect Arab national security as initially approved by most Arab leaders at their Sharm El-Sheikh meeting less than two months ago.

General Mahmoud Hegazy, Egypt's military chief of staff, stressed in Saturday's meeting the necessity of completing the formation of the joint force before end of June to be presented to Arab leaders for discussion in a later summit.

STRATEGIC NECESSITY

"There is a strategic necessity for forming such an Arab joint force due to the deteriorating security conditions and the grave threats and changes in the region," said Ahmed Eliba, researcher at the Cairo-based Regional Center for Strategic Studies (RCSS).

The anticipated formation of the joint Arab military force comes at a time while influential Saudi Arabia is currently leading a regional military coalition launching airstrikes against targets of the Iran-backed Shiite Houthi militants in Yemen who have recently forced the country's president to flee to Riyadh.

Eliba continued that the current security challenges facing some Arab regimes that have eventually been affected by the consequences of the Arab Spring necessitate the formation of such an Arab joint force, expecting the force to reflect the alliance between Egypt and most of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.

Meanwhile, the United States is leading a world alliance against the Islamic State (IS) militant group that has been gaining more grounds in Iraq and posing a growing regional threat to neighboring states and the Arab world and the whole world in general.

"The post-Arab Spring region is now facing greater threats related to regional terrorism in general and cross-border terror organizations in particular," Eliba told Xinhua.

ARAB SELF-RELIANCE

"It is time for Arabs to have a joint force to rely on themselves against national security threats," the RCSS researcher continued, "especially that the United States started to reduce its presence in the Middle East region."

The idea of forming the Arab joint force is also motivated by the recent tense relations between the United States and GCC countries whose recent summit in Washington failed to offer security guarantees to the oil-rich Arabs concerned about Iran's regional expansion due to its anticipated deal with the West and the expected sanction relief in favor of the Islamic Republic.

As Saudi Arabia did not ask the U.S. permission ahead of its military coalition for the Yemeni crisis and the Arabs in general seem to adopt the same policy while forming their joint force, many experts see that the concept of Arab use of military force as one of their foreign policy tools is a big development.

"The Arab use of military force as a deterrent factor shows that the reality has exceeded the limits that can be resolved through diplomacy," Eliba told Xinhua, noting that the recent U.S.-GCC summit failed to reach a common defense strategy between the two sides.

Talaat Musallam, a strategic and security expert and former armed forces general, echoed Eliba's view that "there is no other means for Arabs but to rely on themselves as big powers explicitly say they would not use their forces to defend others."

CHALLENGES AHEAD

Some experts believe that although forming an Arab joint force is "inevitable," the regional turmoil and instability at many Arab spots represent a major challenge for its formation.

"Almost all Arab states are subjected to national security threats, extending to the whole region," Musallam told Xinhua, stressing that the challenges ahead of the formation of the force do not prevent Arabs from preparing for it and thinking of the best possible means to achieve it.

"The major challenge is that Arab states are occupied with their domestic issues and threats like the chaos in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen, as well as the growing terrorist activities in Egypt," the strategic expert explained.

Among the challenges ahead of the Arab joint force is the definition of the political leadership that will determine its tasks, its relation and coordination with Arab armies, the source of its finance, the mechanism of its work, the conditions for its intervention, etc, which are all now under discussion among Arab military officials.

Some experts predict the Arab joint force to be "flexible" in terms of participating states based on the situation that will require its intervention, believing that an Arab state may show less support for the force in some situation and may offer bigger support in another.

FUTURE INFLUENCE

Although many believe it's too soon to judge the future impact of the anticipated joint force, security experts see that it will be influential in terms of maintaining national security and combating growing terror in the region, provided the political will of the participant states is consistent.

"If the political will of participant Arab states are sound and united, I believe the joint Arab force will have a positive impact on preserving Arab national security," Musallam told Xinhua. Endit