Rabat – Morocco has reportedly joined the 34-state military coalition, led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism.
On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia announced the formation of a new “Islamic military alliance” to fight terrorism.
Arab countries such as Morocco, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE have agreed to join the coalition. Turkey, Pakistan, Malaysia and Nigeria are also part of the coalition. Saudi Arabia’s regional rival, Shiite Iran, is not part of the coalition, according to state news agency SPA.
SPA quoted an official statement as saying that the countries mentioned in the statement “have decided on the formation of a military alliance to fight terrorism, with a joint operations center based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations.”
The statement said the alliance is being established because terrorism “should be fought by all means and collaboration should be made to eliminate it.”
The new alliance’s initiatives could potentially include troops on the ground, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir told reporters at a briefing in Paris on Tuesday.
“There are discussions [among] countries that are currently part of the coalition [like] Saudi Arabia, the Emirates, Qatar and Bahrain about sending in some special forces into Syria,” Adel al-Jubeir said, as cited by Reuters.
“Nothing is off the table,” the minister said. “It depends on the requests that come,” he noted, adding that the picture should become clearer within the next few weeks.
Saudi Crown Prince and Defense Minister, Mohammed bin Salman, told reporters on Tuesday that the campaign would “coordinate” efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.
“There will be international coordination with major powers and international organizations … in terms of operations in Syria and Iraq. We can’t undertake these operations without coordinating with legitimacy in this place and the international community,” Bin Salman said without elaborating.
