Security in the Gulf

The Gulf Cooperation Council Strives to Create an Integrated Military Force to Defend the Region

UNIPATH STAFF

Photos by Reuters

Under hazy blue skies on a November day in Manama, Bahrain, special forces from Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) roped from helicopters, scaled buildings like spiders and rescued hostages. Remote-controlled robots operated by Saudi troops disarmed terrorist bombs, and speedboats teeming with multinational commandos surrounded smugglers on the seas.

Such displays of martial dexterity are familiar to attendees at military exercises throughout the Middle East. But the events on this day in Manama — part of the Arabian Gulf Security 1 exercise — represented a step forward in the formation of a common Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) military force.

Arab Gulf Security 1 represented a turning point in cooperation among GCC members Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE and was symbolic of further military integration to come. Unrest in places such as Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen — conflicts in which some GCC militaries have participated or taken leading roles — has increased the urgency of military cooperation in the region.

Lt. Gen. Sheikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, Bahrain’s minister of the interior and commander of the November exercise, spoke for many nations when he inaugurated the exercise that ran from October 25 to November 17, 2016.

“Security is our national responsibility at all times,” the general said. “But the current regional challenges and threats force us to review our position and study the cooperative potential of our countries. From this we have forged an advanced plan of cooperation and coordination based on the unified goals our brotherly countries support.”

GCC security cooperation has had a long gestation. The Peninsula Shield force, headquartered in Saudi Arabia, has existed since the 1980s to quell disturbances. Gulf leaders have periodically introduced plans to further expand and integrate their forces, including a Saudi proposal at a 2013 GCC summit to create a Gulf army 100,000 strong.

But it was only in April 2015, at the 16th consultative meeting in Doha, Qatar, of GCC ministers of the interior, that officials signed a security cooperation agreement that promoted integration of forces to undertake joint counterterrorism operations.

Since then, GCC forces have participated in coalition missions to defeat Daesh in Syria, intervened to counter the Houthi in Yemen, conducted raids in Libya to eliminate al-Qaida and stepped up naval patrols in Gulf waters. And in an attempt to increase interoperability and cohesion before crises strike, GCC military exercises are becoming more commonplace.

Arabian Gulf Security 1 is hardly the only example. In October 2016, the Royal Bahrain Naval Force and Saudi Eastern Fleet partnered to hold the Bridge 17 exercise. In January 2017, National Guard units from Bahrain and Kuwait held the Taawun anti-terrorist drills. Kuwait invited its GCC neighbors — and forces from around the world — when it hosted the Eagle Resolve multinational exercise in April 2017.

International observers have often been skeptical of pronouncements from Gulf states about establishing military alliances, but this time observers say they detect a greater level of commitment in the current flurry of military cooperation.

“Should Arab states manage to overcome their distrust and join together in military terms, there is the strong possibility of a sea change in the region,” noted a report from the European Union Institute for Security Studies titled “An Arab Army — coming at last?” “Instead of relying on outsiders, Arab forces would be in a position to tackle security challenges themselves. Joint operations could act as confidence-building measures among states.”

One event that has helped weld GCC forces together is the operation in Yemen that began in 2015 and has engaged all but Omani Soldiers. A notable success occurred in April 2016, when 2,000 Yemeni and Emirati ground troops recaptured the port city of Mukalla from al-Qaida.

The rising stature of UAE forces was also reflected in the announcement that the country would open a naval and air base in Eritrea, the African nation across the Bab el-Mandeb strait from Yemen. Saudi Arabia has a similar agreement for an African base in Djibouti.

In the coalition fight against Daesh in Syria, the UAE’s aerial combat missions were second only to those of the United States, a tribute to the Gulf nation’s huge investment in its Air Force. The UAE has reached out even further in allowing its pilots to share combat missions with Jordanians and Egyptians, highlighting GCC efforts to build military cooperation beyond its borders.

And if physical military operations weren’t enough, GCC representatives also raised the possibility of creating a “Gulf electronic army” to provide cyber security in a region that, along with the rest of the world, is infiltrated by online criminals and terrorists.

“We need to establish a Gulf electronic army that will move to fight against terrorists and ideological extremists who find sympathizers online,” Dr. Abdulrazaq Al-Morjan, a Saudi cyber expert, told Al Arabiya in January 2017.

He added: “Security is everybody’s responsibility. What I am proposing is a framework toward establishing a system where societies, especially in the Gulf, can actively participate in fighting terrorists’ groups online.”

Signs of unity are most visible, however, on battlefields and training grounds. At Arabian Gulf Security 1, Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, UAE deputy prime minister and minister of the interior, reiterated his country’s commitment to sharing responsibilities for regional security.

“We will protect our common security in the Gulf region in actions, not in words. We will build a … barrier to fend off any threat to the security of any Gulf state,” Sheikh Saif said in November 2016. “The Gulf is unified behind the decisions of the leaders of our countries and the will of their people, who have close family and social ties. Our security is indivisible, and so is our destiny.”