The administration of US President Donald Trump is quietly pushing ahead with a bid to create a new security and political alliance with six Gulf Arab states, Egypt and Jordan, in part to counter Iran’s expansion in the region, US and Arab officials said.
The White House wants to see deeper cooperation between the countries on missile defense, military training, counterterrorism and other issues, such as strengthening regional economic and diplomatic ties, four sources said.
The plan to forge what officials in the White House and Middle East have called an “Arab NATO” of Sunni Muslim allies will likely raise tensions between the US and Shiite Iran.
The US administration’s hope is that the effort, tentatively known as the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), might be discussed at a summit provisionally scheduled from Oct. 12 to 13 in Washington, several sources said.
The White House confirmed that it was working on the concept of the alliance with “our regional partners now and have been for several months.”
Saudi officials raised the idea of a security pact ahead of a Trump visit last year to Saudi Arabia, but the alliance proposal did not get off the ground, a US source said.
A White House National Security Council spokesperson declined to confirm that Trump would host a summit on those dates and sources said that it remains uncertain whether the plan would be finalized by then.
The alliance would put emphasis on Gulf heavyweights Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) working closer together with the Trump administration on confronting Iran.
“Under the pretext of securing stability in the Middle East, Americans and their regional allies are fomenting tension in the region,” a senior Iranian official said, adding that the approach would have “no result” beyond “deepening the gaps between Iran, its regional allies and the US-backed Arab countries.”
Potentially a big obstacle to the planned alliance is a 13-month-old rift pitting Saudi Arabia and the UAE against Qatar.
The UAE is ready to deploy more troops across the Middle East to counter its foes, as it believes it can no longer rely on Western allies like the US and Britain, UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Anwar Gargash said on Thursday.
Setting up an anti-missile defense shield would be a goal for the alliance, as well as training to upgrade the nations’ militaries, a source familiar with the plan said.
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