Arab League to Create Joint Military Force to Fight Iran

Aims for 40,000-Troop Force Within Four Months

by Jason Ditz, 

Capping off weekend negotiations at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the Arab League has agreed in principle to create a combined military strike force, which officials saying is aimed squarely at Iran.

The force will be combined from Sunni Arab nations, and the current aim, admittedly preliminary, is for a force of 40,000 troops backed by warplanes to be created within the next four months.

The elephant in the room in all of this is Yemen, as surely the Saudi-led invasion of Yemen would be just the sort of thing this force is designed for, though Saudi officials are still talking up a comparatively quick victory in Yemen, and predicting the war will be over before this force gets off the ground.

Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby singled out fighting Iran as the main focus of the force at any rate, accusing Iran of intervention “in many nations.” The Arab League has objected to Iranian support for the Assad government in Syria against ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other Sunni Islamist factions.

http://news.antiwar.com/2015/03/29/arab-league-to-create-joint-military-force-to-fight-iran/