Will Trump proclaim an Arab-Muslim NATO in Riyadh?

President Donald Trump and Saudi King are reported by Gulf sources to be planning to announce the establishment of an Arab-Muslim alliance among the 17 rulers invited to attend a summit with the visiting US President on May 22. The invitees include the members of the Gulf Cooperation Council, Jordan’s King Abdullah, the Moroccan King Muhammed, the Presidents of Algeria and Tunisia and Iraqi Prime Minister Haydar al-Abadi. It is not clear whether Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will be handed an invitation when he visits the White House Tuesday, May 16.

Egyptian President Abdul-Fatteh El-Sisi has decided to give the Riyadh summit a miss, barring a last-minute change.

Observers in the Gulf told debkafile’s intelligence sources that the summit is designed to mark the expansion of defense relations between the US and moderate Arab and Muslim nations for a combined war on the Islamic State.

Tehran accuses the US and Saudi leaders as promoting this plan to cover their real purpose which is not to fight ISIS but the Shiites in Iran, Iraq and Syria (the ruling Alawites) and Hizballah in Lebanon. Iran’s Tabnak News Agency has warned that President Trump’s planned trip to Riyadh and his meeting with Saudi and other Arab leaders will set the stage for a Sunni Arab-US alliance to counter Iran’s influence in the region. Israel is always worth a mention in Iranian media, adn they now claim that the role Trump assigns the Jewish state is that of supplier of intelligence for the new Sunni Arab army 

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