Arab League summit agrees to set up joint military force

Heads of the 22-nation Arab League meeting at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh agreed Sunday to the principle of creating a joint Arab military force to counter threats to the security of any member. Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi said a high-level panel will, under the supervision of Arab chiefs of staff, determine within four months the structure and mechanism of the force, which Egyptian officials say it would be made up of around 40,000 elite troops and backed by jets, warships and light armor.

The summit agreed that Saudi-led air strikes in Yemen, further south on the Red Sea would continue until “Shiite rebels withdraw and surrender their weapons.”