Arab army chiefs reconvene on joint military force as Yemen crisis heats up

Special to WorldTribune.com

As U.S. warships monitored an Iran convoy suspected of carrying arms to the Shi’ite Houthi militia in Yemen, the Gulf Arab state military chiefs were gathering in Cairo.

From left, Egypt's President Abdul Fatah Sisi, Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi last month in Egypt. / Mohamed Samaaha / AFP
From left, Egypt’s President Abdul Fatah Sisi, Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud and Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi last month in Egypt. / Mohamed Samaaha / AFP

The ostensible purpose of the meeting on April 22 is to follow up on the summit in March at which they agreed to a proposal by Egyptian President Abdul Fatah Sisi to form a joint military force.

However the building tensions with Iran over the ongoing Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in Yemen will figure prominently in the talks.

Sisi pushed for the creation of the force after the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant executed a group of Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya in February, which prompted retaliatory air strikes from Egypt.

The plan gained urgency after the surge in Yemen by Iran-backed Houthi rebels forced Yemen’s President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi toflee Aden for exile in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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