After Doha strike, Egypt calls to form Arab NATO

Days after Israel bombs Hamas gathering in Qatari capital, Egypt revives plan to create a Joint Arab Force, modeled after NATO, to defend Arab states from attack.

By World Israel News Staff

Egypt is pushing for the formation of a united Arab military force after Israel’s airstrike on a gathering of senior Hamas terrorists in Qatar last week.

According to a report by the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi is seeking support among Arab leaders for a decade-old plan to form a pan-Arab military organization modeled after the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

The plans for a Joint Arab Force date back to March 2015, after a civil war broke out in Yemen. The force was envisioned at the time both as a mechanism for maintaining regional stability — by creating a broad coalition to confront rebel forces and terrorist groups — and as a means of creating a pan-Arab collective defense, deterring attacks by Israel and other non-Arab states.

The plans were shelved in 2016 after no agreement could be reached regarding the mandate of the new force, its finances, its command structure, and the levels of troop contributions by member states.

However, Egypt is now looking to revive the plan, using anxiety across the Arab world following Israel’s airstrike in Doha to rekindle interest in an Arab equivalent of NATO.

A report by the state-owned United Arab Emirates newspaper The National cited unnamed sources who said that multiple Arab states are now considering the Egyptian proposal.

El-Sisi raised the subject with multiple Arab leaders over the past few days ahead of a two-day summit in Doha, during which Arab and Muslim representatives are expected to hold talks on the Egyptian proposal.

The plan, as envisioned by Egypt, would place the new Joint Arab Force’s headquarters in Cairo, which is also home to the Arab League’s headquarters.

The new force would include all 22 member states of the Arab League.

An Egyptian commander would be given control of the force initially, with control then rotating on a regular basis, giving officers from each member state an opportunity to command the joint force.

Each member state would be required to contribute troops and funds based on its size, wealth, and current military capacity. Egypt, for example, would provide some 20,000 troops for the new joint force.