Saudi-led coalition against terrorism: Its meaning and motive

Saudi Arabia has announced an Islamic military alliance to fight international terror threats. Based in Riyadh, the coalition consists of 34 countries and presents an interesting amalgamation of political interests to counter the growing threat of terrorism. It includes the Gulf states, which are closely allied with Saudi Arabia, Muslim military powers Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt as well as many African countries.

As expected, Saudi Arabia's regional rival and Shiite-majority Iran and Tehran-allied Iraq and Syria are not included in the new alliance.

Saudi Arabia and Iran support the opposite sides in the civil wars raging in Syria and Yemen and remain at loggerheads in Iraq where the Tehran regime has gained great influence after the U.S.-led military takeover of Baghdad in 2003.

Two notable absentees in the alliance are the most populous Muslim country Indonesia and key North African nation Algeria. However, all other North African countries are in the coalition. Algeria basically does not back military interventions in other countries.

There is no Central Asian country currently in the alliance either, obviously due to Russian influence in the region. Also missing from the list is close Turkish ally Azerbaijan. Another notable absentee from the list is Saudi Arabia's neighbor and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member Oman. In March 2016, Oman refused to join the Saudi-led coalition against the Houthi rebels in Yemen as it has been trying to broker a sectarian reconciliation among Sunni and Shiite states in the region.

Afghanistan, which is reeling under serious militancy, is also missing from the club.

All the alliance members are also part of the larger 57-member Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is also headquartered in Saudi Arabia. Saudi state news agencies also claim that 10 other Islamic countries, including Indonesia, have expressed support for the alliance.

A joint statement published by the state-run Saudi Press Agency (SPA) confirms: "The countries here mentioned have decided on the formation of a military alliance led by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism, with a joint operations center based in Riyadh to coordinate and support military operations."

According to reports, the new alliance would coordinate efforts against extremists in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan, and would not just focus on fighting DAESH's shadowy terror network.

The announcement cited "a duty to protect the Islamic nations from the evils of all terrorist groups and organizations, whatever their sect and name, which wreak death and corruption on earth and aim to terrorize the innocent."

Asked if the new alliance would focus only on DAESH, Saudi Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said that it would confront "any terrorist organization that appears in front of us."

The initial statements coming from Saudi officials suggest the likelihood for joint military action in Iraq and Yemen and later in Syria where the situation has become exceptionally complicated after direct Russian military intervention on behalf of Syrian dictator, President Bashar Assad, and the Iranian regime.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan, which had earlier refused to take part in the war against the Houthis in Yemen after the country's parliament unanimously opposed joining the coalition, is part of the 34-member alliance, and its presence can obviously be viewed as providing the nascent alliance strong military muscle.

Ironically, there have been major stumbling blocks for the alliance. Therefore, to achieve military successes it will have to first overcome the differences within. Earlier, the Saudis were supporting the pro-status quo bloc whereas Turkey was backing the needed change in the region in the wake of the Arab revolutions. Turkey has vehemently opposed the Saudi- and United Arab Emirates (UAE)-backed coup regime of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi in Egypt since its inception. In Libya, Turkey supports the opposition groups whereas the UAE and Egypt back the rival factions.

It seems Russia's military intervention in Syria and its close alliance with the Iran-led Shiite troika prompted the major Middle Eastern countries to form such a military alliance.

After Turkey downed the Russian military plane, the wedge between the two countries has reached a serious point.

It can be said that Russian military intervention in the Middle East has sowed the seed of this counter-alliance to deal with the emerging situation.

Weakening U.S. influence in the Middle East is also one of the major reasons behind the emergence of this alliance. With this alliance, the regional players will have more vital roles in Middle East affairs. Ankara has long been a supporter of regional solutions to regional problems.

Iran's military intervention in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen has reached a dangerous level. The Tehran regime has gone beyond its periphery, posing a serious threat to the stability of the region. This has made the Sunni bloc try to overcome its divisions over the Egyptian coup and forge a common front that can deal with the Iranian threat.

The formation of this broad-based alliance is certainly aimed at checking Iran's imperialistic aspirations and stall Russian military advances that are reminiscent of Soviet expansionism. It will help Saudis solve the stalemate in Yemen, as the nine-month Saudi-led military intervention has not achieved the desired result.

As expected, the U.S. has welcomed the move while Iran and Russia have not, and China may prefer not to take sides, at least publicly.

European powers and most of the coalition members have also welcomed Saudi Arabia's initiative to create an alliance against terrorism. However, its military and ideological role has been met with confusion among a few of its members.

However, only a few members in the alliance actually count militarily. Most only offer symbolic value.

An alliance of this type must have active military participation from Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt along with the Saudis. In this context, the abysmal record of the OIC, GCC and the Arab League in solving regional crises in the past hardly makes one optimistic.

To accomplish something on the ground, the new alliance will have to understand the hard power realities and exercise unified military power along with political maneuvering.

It remains to be seen how this politically divergent alliance will coordinate and support military operations to solve the growing terrorism and militarism in the region.