Is Saudi Arabia building an ‘Islamic NATO?’

What you’re likely looking at is indeed an islamic NATO. This is what the American retreat created and allowed to fill in the vacuum. The Saudis no longer trust America and have taken action into their own hands. This is their hedge against Iran’s spreading hegemony as well as Russia who has entered the arena.

 

Saudi soldiers march during Abdullah’s Sword military drill in Hafar al-Batin, near the border with Kuwait, April 29, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Faisal Al Nasser)

 

In Riyadh, shortly after midnight on Dec. 14, Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister of Saudi Arabia Prince Mohammed bin Salman surprised the world when he held a press conference — his first — in which he announced the formation of a new Islamic military coalition against terrorism. Predicated on the premise that Muslims have suffered more from terrorism than any other group, Mohammed argued that Islamic countries needed to transform the unilateral counterterrorism campaigns currently being carried out by more than 50 countries around the world into a collective effort to vanquish this “disease.”

Report: Iran sends navy vessels near Yemen amid airstrikes

SANAA, Yemen (AP) — Iran dispatched a naval destroyer and another vessel Wednesday to waters near Yemen as the United States quickened weapons supply to the Saudi-led coalition striking rebels there, underlining how foreign powers are deepening their involvement in the conflict.

Iran’s English-language state broadcaster Press TV quoted Rear Adm. Habibollah Sayyari as saying the ships would be part of an anti-piracy campaign “safeguarding naval routes for vessels in the region.”

The maneuver comes amid an intense Saudi-led Gulf Arab air campaign targeting the Yemeni rebels, known as Houthis, who come from a Shiite sect. Critics say Shiite power Iran backs the Houthis, though both the Islamic Republic and the rebels deny any direct military assistance.

Saudi bombing raids will continue in Yemen until rebels ‘withdraw and surrender their weapons’: Arab League

Saudi-led bombing raids will continue in Yemen until Shia insurgents who have taken control of swathes of the country “withdraw and surrender their weapons,” the Arab League said Sunday.

Officials from Sunni Arab states, attending a summit in the Egyptian city of Sharm el Sheikh, also announced plans to set up a joint reaction force to tackle uprisings in the region.

As Iran-backed forces advance in Yemen, Obama’s terror strategy questioned

As the Iran-backed Shi’ite Houthi militia consolidated its control of Yemen’s capital over the weekend and continued its advance southward, the U.S. counter terrorism strategy for the nation is being seen for what it is — a failure.

Praised just six months ago by President Barack Obama as a model for the new U.S. war on terror, the plan has failed in Yemen amid reports the last of the U.S. special forces in the country have been withdrawn.