CounterterrorismSaudi-led Islamic counterterrorism alliance holds first summit meeting
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the young but dominant figure in Saudi Arabia, on Sunday convened a meeting in Riyadh of top defense officials from forty-one Muslim countries for the first summit of the Islamic Military Counterterrorism Alliance. Saudi Arabia announced the alliance in December 2015 to fight “terrorism,” singling out the “Islamic State” (IS) as a disease tarnishing the name of Islam. Analysts note that the real target of the new alliance may not be Islamist extremism, but Iran. All the alliance members are Sunni-majority or Sunni-led countries. The alliance does not include Shiite Iran; Syria, which is ruled by Alawite president Bashar al-Assad; or Iraq, which is led by a Shiite government.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the young but dominant figure in Saudi Arabia, on Sunday convened a meeting in Riyadh of top defense officials from forty-one Muslim countries for the first summit of the Islamic Military Counterterrorism Alliance.
Saudi Arabia announced the alliance in December 2015 to fight “terrorism,” singling out the “Islamic State” (IS) as a disease tarnishing the name of Islam (see “Saudi-led alliance sends troops to Syria; protecting Mosul dam; Italy and refugees,” HSNW, 16 December 2015; and “Saudi Arabia leads effort to create a Muslim NATO-like alliance,” HSNW, 16 March 2016).
In his opening remarks, Prince Mohammed said the alliance would “work together to support the military, financial, intelligence and political efforts of every member state” to battle terrorism and extremist ideology.
“The biggest danger of this terrorism and extremism is the tarnishing of the reputation of our beloved religion. … We will not allow this to happen,” he said.
The Express Tribune reports that the alliance initially had thirty-four members, but now includes forty-one countries.
Analysts say that it is unclear what the alliance would do, especially now that IS has been largely defeated in Syria and Iraq.
Sebastian Sons, an associate fellow at the German Council of Foreign Relations told DW that the United States has been urging Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries to take more assertive action against extremism and terrorism, and that for the young crown prince, the alliance is a way to show himself as the Arab world’s leader at a time when the U.S. leadership in the region is being questioned.
“This alliance is a clear signal to the Arab-Islamic world that Saudi Arabia still wants to set the main agenda in regional policy and, of course, another instrument of containing Iran,” Sons said. He added that Saudi Arabia is a member of the U.S.-led coalition against IS, but its role has been marginal. It has instead become embroiled in a war in Yemen against Iran-supported Houthi rebels.
Other say that having Saudi Arabia lead a counter-extremism coalition is like having the fox watch over the henhouse.
