Arab leaders began convening Thursday in Egypt for an annual summit to discuss creating a joint military force.
In the past couple of months, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi has been calling for Arab nations to develop a regional force that would combat the Islamic State group, ever since the violent Islamist movement released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptians on a Libyan beach. Egypt responded with airstrikes against Islamic State group positions in Libya.
In 2014, the United Arab Emirates was accused of using Egyptian bases to launch airstrikes against Islamist movements in Libya.
The issue has become more pertinent since the Gulf states’ bombing against Yemen began.
On Wednesday Saudi Arabia led airstrikes against the Houthi government in Yemen. The Saudi bombings were joined by several other Gulf states. In a joint statement, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait said they “decided to repel Houthi militias, al-Qaida and ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria] in the country.” It went on to call the Houthi take over of the Yemen government a “major threat” to the region.
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Furthermore, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan and Sudan said Thursday they were ready to send ground troops into Yemen. Even the Syrian National Coalition, a Western-supported opposition group, said that it supported the Saudi offensive.
Nabil al-Arabi, the chief of the Arab League, told AFP that the summit's “major concern” should be violent Islamist groups.
"The most important ... concern of the summit is what to do about the unprecedented threats throughout the Arab word... [from] terrorist organisations," said al-Arabi.