Saudi Arabia has announced that it is forming a new Islamic Military Alliance devoted to fighting global terrorism.
The alliance was formed from "keenness of the Muslim world to fight this disease, which affected the Islamic world first, before the international community as a whole," Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister Mohammed bin Salman said.
The plan seems to calm critics from the West that the Muslim world is not doing enough to fight terrorism and estremism.
But the details of the alliance seem vague because it is unclear who is in the alliance and what it designed to do.
"We came to know about it (the alliance) through news reports. We have asked our ambassador in Saudi Arabia to get details on it," a senior official of Pakistan's Foreign Office said according to Express Tribune.
Among the 34 countries included in the Islamic Military Alliance according to Saudi Arabia are Egypt, Malaysia, Pakistan, Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Turkey. Iran, Iraq and Syria are not part of the coalition.
Indonesian government denied joining the military coalition led by Saudi Arabia. "The government is still observing and waiting to see the modalities of the military coalition formed by Saudi Arabia," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arrmanatha Nasir said according to The Jakarta Post.
"Indonesia is not supporting the coalition, but instead supporting Saudi Arabia's effort to combat terrorism and extremism," Arrmanatha continued.
The Lebanon foreign ministry also denied that they are aware of the creation of an anti-terrorism coalition according to a report by The Daily Star. This contradicts the statement of the country's prime minister saying that Lebanon is a member of the alliance.
The Washington Post reports its confusion why Christian countries are in the list. More than 80 percent of Uganda are Christians, while Gabon has 75 percent. Afghanistan, however, is not part of the Saudi Arabia's Islamic Military Alliance.
