Sharm Al Shaikh, Egypt: One Arab leader after the other Saturday sounded the alarm about stark dangers facing their countries as hotspots are expanding in the region.
Gathering for an annual Arab summit, the leaders expressed backing for a Saudi-led military campaign targeting Yemen’s Houthi rebels, whom they described as a direct threat to Arab security.
Egyptian President Abdul Fattah Al Sissi, whose country is participating in the campaign, said that the action in Yemen was inevitable. “It was necessary to take a firm Arab move… with the aim of preserving Yemen’s unity and territorial integrity as well as interests of its people and their Arab identity,” he told the opening session of the event in the Egyptian Red Sea town of Sharm Al Shaikh.
Al Sissi accused foreign powers of manipulating “Yemen’s ailments to wreak havoc on the Arab body” in what seems to be an indirect reference to Iran, suspected of allying with the Yemeni rebels.
Accusing Al Houthis of endangering regional security, Saudi King Salman bin Abdel Aziz vowed to continue the military operation in neighbouring Yemen until the country becomes secure and safe.
“The Houthis’ moves in Yemen are a coup against legitimacy in Yemen,” he said, referring to the rebels’ takeover of the capital Sana’a and other parts of the country.
The Saudi leader said his country was ready to host talks among Yemeni factions to resolve the crisis.
Praising the military action against his opponents, Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi called for the continuation of the bombing until what he called “ puppets of Iran” surrender.
Hadi called on Yemenis to hold peaceful demonstrations to show support for “legitimacy.”
Hadi had been been placed under house arrest by rebels before he fled from the Houthi-controlled capital to Yemen’s southern city of Aden. He is unlikely to return any time soon to Aden, being the centre of fighting between his loyalists and the rebels. Saudi Arabia, in which he took refuge days earlier, seems to be his next destination.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon told the Arab summit that negotiations are the only way to prevent a protracted conflict in Yemen.
The summit, which wraps on Sunday, is officially titled “Challenges Facing Arab National Security”, a theme shaped by the growing dominance of Daesh militants in Iraq, Syria and Libya.
Al Sissi, whose country shares long border with Libya, urged the summiteers to to take collective “practical and credible” steps to preserve Arab security and stop what he called “attempts to meddle“ in Arab countries’ affairs.
“We haver to act lest we should turn into a group of countries, which cling to a glorious past, but are too weak to influence the presence or to make a future.”
Al Sissi also called on fellow leaders to approve his proposal to set up a joint Arab force to intervene in regional hotspots.
The Arab leaders are to discuss a draft resolution on the proposed force already endorsed by their foreign ministers.
Seeking to ease fears about the role of the proposed force, Al Sissi said that it would be based on charters of the Arab League and the UN “without infringing the sovereignty and independence of any Arab country.”
Al Sissi concluded his address, chanting “long live the Arab world”, slightly changing his trademark slogan of “long live Egypt”.
Arab League chief Nabil Al Arabi expected the summit to “take important decisions, which he said would wield a major influence on the Arab world’s future.
