Saudi Arabia to host anti-ISIL talks

RIYADH // Military chiefs from around the world will gather in the Saudi capital on Wednesday to assess the battle against ISIL extremists, diplomatic sources said.

It comes as Qatar’s emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Saudi Arabia’s King Salman in Riyadh on Tuesday to discuss about the deteriorating security situation in Yemen and relations with Egypt.

A day earlier, the UAE also sent a high-level delegation, led by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, to Riyadh for similar talks.

The two-day meeting of military chiefs is a followup to earlier talks and will gather “all the countries that are involved” in the US-led coalition against ISIL, including Gulf nations, a diplomatic source said.

“I think it’ll be sort of a general appraisal of where we’re at, what needs to be done,” said the source.

Another person said the meeting is “more an exchange of information” and a chance for co-ordination, rather than a forum for major decisions.

The talks among defence chiefs and their deputies coincide with the rise of ISIL in Libya, which has heightened concerns in the region since the group seized parts of Iraq and Syria last year.

Arab states, including the UAE and Jordan, have intensified their bombing of ISIL targets since the militants in early February claimed to have burned alive the Jordanian fighter pilot Maaz Al Kassasbeh, who was captured when his plane went down over Syria last year.

On Monday, Bahrain deployed fighter jets to Jordan in support of the kingdom’s anti-ISIL air campaign.

The same day, the UAE said its Jordanian-based warplanes hit oil refineries run by the militants, while Egypt carried out its first announced military action against ISIL in Libya, after the militants released a video showing the beheading of 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians.

Saudi Arabia has since September been participating in the airstrikes against ISIL in Syria.

The Pentagon announced last month that the first of nearly 1,000 US military personnel would soon begin deploying to Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, where they will train moderate Syrian rebels to take on ISIL.

Western countries such as Australia, Belgium, Britain, Canada, Denmark, France and the Netherlands have also carried out airstrikes against the militants in Iraq, alongside the United States.

Germany said in December it would send about 100 soldiers to northern Iraq to train Kurdish peshmerga fighters battling the extremists.

* Agence France-Presse, additional reporting from Associated Press