Abu Dhabi: Operation ‘Storm of Resolve (Decisive storm)’, launched by a coalition of ten nations to restore legitimacy in Yemen, has laid down new foundations for Gulf and Arab security,” a GCC researcher said in a lecture organised by the Emirates Centre for Strategic Studies and Research (ECSSR).
In his lecture titled ‘The GCC and Arab National Security: Roles and Challenges’, Dr Khalid Bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, Vice Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Executive Director, Eisa Cultural Centre, Bahrain, said the Arabian Gulf states found themselves engulfed by a series of crises: Syria and Iraq from the north, Yemen from the south and Iran from the east and some eastern African countries from the west.
He blamed Iran for being behind these troubles and wooing these African countries to serve its own interests.
Operation Storm of Resolve, he explained, embodied Gulf-Arab understanding of threats the Gulf-Arab national security is facing, particularly when the Al Houthis took over the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, undermining security and stability in Yemen.
He noted the GCC’s self-reliance had taken many countries and international powers by surprise, simply because they didn’t expect such a strong reaction in Yemen. He called that a pre-emptive policy of attack to ensure self-defence.
He concluded that realisation of Arab national security requires fortifying the internal front, building a joint military force, forging a common Gulf-Arab strategy to maintain Arab national security, and reconsidering the pattern of present international strategic coalitions for Arab and Gulf countries with international actors.
The Treaty of Joint Defence and Economic Co-operation of the League of Arab States, signed in 1950, he admitted, failed to counter aggression against the Arab states, even though it states that any aggression against any signatory will be considered an aggression against all Arab states.
“Perhaps the events of the Arab-Israeli conflict, the Iraq-Iran War (1980-1988), and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait are the most prominent indicators of this failure,” he said.
