Report: Egypt reviving proposal for NATO-style Arab force to protect countries from attack

Egypt is looking to gain Arab nations’ support for a NATO-style Arab force that would protect Arab countries facing attack, Lebanon’s Al-Akhbar newspaper reports, citing an unnamed official in Cairo.

The report notes the proposal was first made some nine years ago, but did not advance. While the report does not say so outright, it suggests that Israel’s recent strike on Hamas leaders in Qatar has given new impetus to the initiative.

It says the Egypt is proposing to include some 20,000 of its own military personnel in the force and is working on developing the mechanism by which such a force would be activated, “allowing it to be used when necessary and forming it in a manner consistent with the populations of Arab countries and their armed forces, while taking into account regional and political balances in the formation, whether in terms of the inclusion of military personnel from countries such as Morocco and Algeria, or sharing command positions,” according to the official.

“Cairo wants to retain the first command position while granting the second to Saudi Arabia or one of the Gulf states,” he added.