Rabat - Morocco will take part in Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Military Coalition (IMC), a grand commission of Muslim countries against terrorism launched Sunday following the worst terrorist attack ever perpetrated in Egypt.
Rabat – Morocco will take part in Saudi Arabia’s Islamic Military Coalition (IMC), a grand commission of Muslim countries against terrorism launched Sunday following the worst terrorist attack ever perpetrated in Egypt.
Announced this weekend, this new coalition includes 40 predominantly Sunni Muslim countries and aims fight against extremist groups until their “complete disappearance from the face of earth.”
Speaking at the first meeting of the Coalition’s Council of Defense Ministers, Abdellatif Loudiyi, the Moroccan delegate minister in charge of the National Defense Administration, stressed that Morocco “will support its Coalition brothers in view of its accumulated experience in the fight against extremism and terrorism and its forward-looking multidimensional approach to combat the thoughts and ideas of extremist organizations, as well as its success in dismantling terrorist cells.”
Loudiyi reiterated Morocco’s continued solidarity with Saudi Arabia in “defending its sovereignty and territorial integrity” and its full support for “all measures taken in the face of anything that might affect its security and stability.”
For his part, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Vice-President of the Council of Ministers, and Minister of Defense Mohamed Ben Salman stressed that this meeting is “a strong signal of cooperation against terrorism,” noting that the coalition “will prevent this scourge from tarnishing the image of the tolerant Muslim religion and terrorizing civilians in Islamic states.”
Speaking at the opening of this meeting, the prince also expressed, on behalf of the coalition, solidarity with Egypt following the terrorist act that targeted a mosque in northern Sinai, causing the death of 350 people.
Ben Salman noted that more than 40 states reaffirmed their willingness to cooperate and work together to combat terrorism at both the military and financial, intelligence, and political levels.
The IMC also gathers several African and Asian countries, including Nigeria, Turkey and Pakistan. Unsurprisingly, Saudi Arabia’s rival, Iran, is not part of the coalition, along with Iraq, Syria, and Qatar.
