The Trump administration is quietly in the process of organizing eight Middle East regimes into an "Arab NATO," the Washington Times website reports today (October 5, 2018).
During much of September, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arabian Gulf Affairs Tim Lenderking engaged in shuttle diplomacy to lay the groundwork for a U.S.-hosted summit in January on what officials are calling the "Middle East Strategic Alliance," or MESA.
Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gathered on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York City with the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates to prepare for the January meeting, State Department sources confirmed.
The Arab NATO/MESA military coalition would be a Saudi-led effort and would include the six Arab states of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) along with Egypt and Jordan.
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