DUBAI — The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) will have
a force of 100,000 members under the newly announced and US-backed
Joint Military Command, according to Prince Miteb Bin Abdullah, Saudi
Arabia’s Minister of the National Guard .
“There will be a unified
command of around 100,000 members, God willing. I hope it will happen
soon, and the National Guard is ready for anything that is asked of it,”
Prince Miteb was quoted as saying by the Saudi Press Agency (SPA)
earlier this week.
The announcement by Prince Miteb comes less
than one week after US President Barack Obama issued a directive to
Congress to facilitate for the GCC defense article sales and defense
services under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 and the Arms Export
Control Act.
The joint command, according to a high-level GCC
official quoted in Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat, has been agreed to
be headquartered in Riyadh.
The new command's implementation has
been mandated to the GCC Military Committee, an advisory committee to
the secretary general. According to a paper by US Navy Lt. Cmdr. Glenn
Kuffel published by the Naval War College, the GCC Military Committee is the closest
organization the GCC has to a Joint Staff. "Although not empowered in
any way similar to the U.S. Joint Staff, it has standardized 90 to 95
percent of the GCC country's army doctrine," the report read.
The committee, now working on the set up of the command, is compromised of approximately 100 officers from throughout the GCC.
Currently
the GCC has a 40,000-strong Peninsula Shield Force commanded by Maj.
Gen. Mutlaq Bin Salem Al Azima in its permanent base at King Khalid
Military City in Hafar Al Batin, Saudi Arabia.
A second headquarters was announced in April this year to be established in Bahrain.
Fahd
Al-Shulaimi, president of Gulf Security and Peace Forum, emphasized the
significance of the joint military command and said it would strengthen
GCC military cooperation.
“There is a difference between the
Peninsula Shield and the joint command, as the latter will coordinate
joint efforts and set out plans to confront threats. Its main goal is to
bolster the defense of GCC states,” he told Al-Arabiya news channel
