Arabs weigh ‘rapid response’ force with U.S. blessing

POLITICO: Following a summit with Gulf Arabs the ended with no apparent breakthroughs, a buried line in a joint statement hinted at a potentially major development: possible American support for a new pan-Arab “rapid reaction” military force.

The language stood out to some foreign policy observers, in part because a number of Obama administration officials have reservations about the potentially destabilizing effect of creating a large standing force dominated by mostly Sunni Arab nations.

The statement distributed by the White House following Thursday’s summit of Arab leaders at Camp David marked President Obama’s first clear public gesture of encouragement for an Arab League proposal to create a force numbering in the tens of thousands… (more)

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