For a purpose

The Arab foreign ministers’ meeting in Sharm El Sheikh, in preparation for the Arab summit, recommended the establishment of a united Arab force to face common challenges and threats to the Arab world.

The Arab leaders are expected to endorse this proposal, having already assembled a fleet of warplanes from 10 countries to combat the advances of the Houthis in Yemen.

In other words, it was the threat of the Houthis that pushed the Arab world to move to form a united force to stop the advances of the Shiites allies in several areas of the Arab nation.

The projected united Arab armies will be an ad hoc fighting force composed of Sunni Arabs who will try to stop the advances of the Shiite-led opposition in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and now in Yemen.

The idea of a united Arab army is not new; its genesis can be found in the Arab League Charter.

It has been also the dream of Arab nationalists since the Arab countries gained their independence from the yoke of colonialism in the early 1950s and beyond, which brought about a strong feeling of unity.

It was first thought that such a combined Arab force would liberate Palestine or at least the West Bank from Israeli occupation and colonisation.

That dream was never fulfilled as the divisions among Arab capitals were too deep.

Major countries of the world had separate spheres of influence in the Arab world and prevented real cohesion or unity of ranks.

A united Arab command was tried in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, but the move failed.

Now it seems that the envisaged Arab force will be created to combat Daesh and/or Al Qaeda and/or Shiite-led factions.

Against this backdrop, the projected united Arab force will focus on certain Arab enemies, but not all.

There is no suggestion that the projected united Arab army will ever be deployed to defend the Palestinians or the Syrian peoples.

Why was not such Arab army considered for the Syrian civil war, which has been dragging for five years, killing hundreds of thousands of people and literally destroying the entire country?

The question might haunt the Arab leaders as they meet in Sharm El Sheikh to decide on a nascent united Arab force to deter the enemies of the Arab countries from posing a threat to their political order or existence.