Leaders of Arab and Islamic nations pushed for an “Arab Nato” in a meeting of over 40 Muslim countries, including Pakistan and Turkey. Egypt, which has the Arab world’s largest army, pitched it as a collective defence shield.
On Monday, scores of leaders from Arab and Islamic nations rushed to Doha, for an emergency meeting to present a united response to Israel’s strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar there last week. Although the leaders differed on the way forward and settled on only minimal action against Israel, a more concrete outcome may be that they have set in motion the emergence of an Arab military alliance.
The proposed alliance, dubbed “Arab Nato” by Egypt, which has the Arab world’s largest army, came at the meeting in Qatar attended by Pakistan and Turkey.
Pakistan, the only nuclear-armed Muslim state, not only attended the emergency summit but also called for a joint task force to “monitor Israeli designs in the region”. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was also present at the Summit, called for an “economic squeezing of Israel”.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani also batted for a Nato-style collective security framework, stressing that “the security and stability of any Arab or Islamic country is an integral part of our collective security”.
The decade-old initiative, launched by Saudi Arabia after the Arab Spring, announced the formation of a 34-nation Islamic alliance against terrorism. That plan is now being fast-tracked following Israel’s airstrike on Doha, as Donald Trump’s US is busy revisiting its security engagement terms with allies worldwide.
