Nabil el-Arabi, general secretary of the Arab League, attempts to explain the project for the « Arab » Common Defence Force.

In his Doctrine of National Security, published on the 6th February 2015, President Obama wrote - « Long-term stability [in the Middle East and North Africa] requires more than the use and presence of United States military forces. It calls for partners who are capable of defending themselves without assistance. That is why we are investing in the capacity of Israël, Jordan and our partners in the Gulf to discourage aggression while maintaining our indestructible engagement to the security of Israël, including by its qualitative military advancement » [1].

Careful reading of this document leaves no doubt. The Pentagon strategy consists of the creation of a modern version of the Baghdad Pact, an Arab NATO, in order to be able to withdraw its military forces in the Middle East and North Africa and reposition them in the Far East (the « pivot » against China).

Likewise, it is clear that from the US point of view, the Pentagon plans that this « Arab Common Defence Force » should be constituted of Gulf States and Jordan, and that it should be placed under Israeli command. If we take the example of the Baghdad Pact, we will remember that it was constituted by the United Kingdom with its old colonies. However, after three years, its Staff was placed under the control of the Pentagon, although the United States had never been a member of the Pact.

In November 2013, the Israeli President of the time, Shimon Peres, spoke via video-conference before the Gulf Security Council meeting in Abu Dhabi, in the presence of representatives from the principal members of the Arab League and the sunni states of Asia [2]. His intervention, which dealt with the necessity for a new military pact opposing Iran, was copiously applauded.

The SIPRI of Stockholm (Stockholm International Peace Research Institute) has just revealed that Saudi Arabia would be prepared to create the « Arab Common Defence Force » by increasing its 2014 military budget by 13 billion dollars (+17 % !).

Riyadh is trying to implicate the greatest number of states possible in this project, and has succeeded in buying the participation of Egypt. To do so, the Gulf states offered 12 billion dollars for investment projects in Cairo, during the economic conference in Charm el-Cheikh, on the 13th March.

The Arab League adopted this project during its summit at Charm el-Cheick on the 1st April. Officially, its aim is to apply the 1950 Arab Defence Treaty to fight terrorism, unless it is to satisfy Saudi ambitions in Yemen. The war against the Houthis, for which no-one can understand the necessity, is playing the role of a full-scale excercise, with no show of compassion for the thousand dead and 3,000 wounded that it has caused.

According to Stratfor, the military staff of operation « Decisive Tempest » is not in Arabia, but in Somaliland. This country, which proclaimed its independance in 1960, then was attached to Somalia following a coup d’etat in 1969, proclaimed independence for a second time in 1991 before being once again reintegrated into Somalia in 1994. It proclaimed its independence for a third time in 2002. During the first two independences, Israël was the first state to recognîse Somaliland. Currently, this state is no longer recognised by anyone, but since 2010, it acts as an Israeli base to control the Bab el-Mandeb Straits which link the Suez Canal and the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean.

The Chiefs of Staff of the Arab League met on the 22nd April to evaluate the units that it could place at the disposition of this organisation. Egypt, Koweït and Morocco – all three implicated in the bombing of Yemen – will be presenting a preliminary report on the 1st July.

All of this was unfortuntely forseeable. After having betrayed the Syrian people by excluding the Syrian Arab Republic from its ranks, in violation of its statutes, the Arab League is preparing to betray the Palestinian people and place its armies under the control of a colonial state.

Translation
Pete Kimberley

[1National Security Strategy, White House, February 6, 2015. And our commentary “Obama Rearms”, by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Roger Lagassé, Voltaire Network, 10 February 2015.

[2Shimon Peres addressed Gulf Security Council, end November”, Translation Alizée Ville, Voltaire Network, 5 December 2013.