The United States 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.
The White House wants to see deeper cooperation between the countries on missile defense, military training, counter-terrorism, and other issues such as strengthening regional economic and diplomatic ties, four sources told Reuters news agency.
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 United States and Shia Iran, two countries increasingly at odds since President Donald Trump took office.
The administration’s hope is that the effort, tentatively known as the Middle East Strategic Alliance (MESA), might be discussed at a summit provisionally scheduled for Washington on October 12-13, sources said.
The White House confirmed 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 Trump’s visit last year to Saudi Arabia, where he announced a massive arms deal, but the proposal didn’t get off the ground, a US source said.
“MESA will serve as a bulwark against Iranian aggression, terrorism, extremism, and will bring stability to the Middle East,” a spokesperson for the White House’s National Security Council said, cautioning it remains uncertain whether the security plan will be finalised by mid-October.