Arab leaders at a summit in Egypt yesterday announced the formation of a unified military force to counter growing security threats from Yemen to Libya, and as regional heavyweights Saudi Arabia and Iran engage in sectarian proxy wars.

Working out the mechanism and logistics of the unified force, an idea floated by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, could take months.

Previous, similar schemes have failed to produce tangible results in the divided Arab world. Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shukri said the Arab force would be voluntary. The unified force would be supervised by the chiefs of staffs of Arab armed forces, Sisi told the summit.

The dangers facing the region since the Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 are complex. While conflicts intensify in Yemen and Libya, the civil war in Syria is entering its fifth year and Egypt faces an Islamist militant insurgency.

Islamic State militants have taken over swathes of Iraq and Syria and spawned splinter groups across the Arab world. The US and other major powers are seeking a final nuclear deal with Iran, in a process that worries many Sunni Arab leaders wary of Shi’ite Iran’s growing influence. The summit’s final communique called for “coordination, efforts and steps to establish an unified Arab force” to intervene in countries such as Yemen. The move came after Saudi Arabia patched together a 10-nation Arab coalition against Houthi fighters who have made rapid advances in Yemen.

Military force to counter security threats from Yemen to Libya

Chaos in Libya may be one key test for the unified force if it intervenes in a country with factions allied to two governments. Sisi has called for concerted Arab and Western action against the threat posed by militant groups operating in Libya and elsewhere. He ordered air strikes against Islamic State militants in Libya after the ultra-hardline Sunni group be-headed 21 Egyptian Christians there.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of hypocrisy yesterday, telling an Arab summit that he should not express support for the Middle East while fuelling instability by supporting Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad.

In a rare move, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi read a letter from Putin at the summit.

“We support the Arabs’ aspirations for a prosperous future and for the resolution of all the problems the Arab world faces through peaceful means, without any external interference,” Putin said in the letter. However, his comments triggered a sharp attack from Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal.

“He speaks about the problems in the Middle East as though Russia is not influencing these problems. They speak about tragedies in Syria while they are an essential part of the tragedies befalling the Syrian people, by arming the Syrian regime above and beyond what it needs to fight its own people,” Prince Saud said.

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