Excerpt
April 12, 2019
Saudi Arabia plays host to high-level officials from US, Gulf states and Jordan as it prepares to launch Middle East Strategic Alliance - a new body designed to counter Iran's influence in the region
Saudi Arabia is preparing for the launch of the so-called “Arab NATO” — the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA) — in an effort to combat Iranian hegomony in the region.
The kingdom on April 8 hosted a meeting with the high-level participation of Saudi Arabia, the United States, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Jordan. According to the Saudi WAS news agency, the meeting was “an important step to launching the alliance, which aims to strengthen the security and stability of the region and the world.”
Sulaiman al-Oqaily, a Saudi political analyst, says there must be one strategy among the Arab nations that form the alliance, as well as a clear target in order for such an endeavor to succeed.
First, al-Oqaily points out that there must be one united Arab bloc that has agreed that the “Arab NATO” would protect the Arab world from all kind of threats and security challenges. “Its members’ motives and determinants have to be the same,” he says.
Al-Oqaily says that the sectarianism with which Iran targets the Middle East is more dangerous than Israel.
“Iran is taking advantage of its culture and religious links to the Arab world to expand there and destroy it,” he says. “Israel can’t violate the Arab society like Iran, but through its intelligence services.”
He also speculates that if Iran weren’t involved in Iraq, the latter would have peace by now.
The US administration has since last year been exploring the creation of a new security body comprising Sunni Middle Eastern countries that would be geared toward countering Shiite Iran’s regional adventurism. Reportedly, MESA member-states would seek deeper cooperation in the realms of missile defense, military training and counter-terrorism, while strengthening broader political and economic ties.
“It would serve as a bulwark against Iranian aggression, terrorism, extremism and will bring stability,” a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council asserted in reference to the potential association last year.
All the views expressed in, and at the source of, this article may not necessarily reflect those of T.E.A. Watchers.
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