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ORIGINAL: tweakabelle

While any increased effort by the Arab/Muslim world against the barbarians of IS is to be welcomed, this initiative leaves a few questions unanswered.

If the linked report is accurate, it is significant that both Iran and the Kurds have omitted from the coalition. Kurdish and Iranian forces have proved to be the most effective and successful 'on the ground' fighters against IS in Iraq and Syria. This omission leads to questions about the exact nature of the coalition. Why have the most successful anti-IS fighters been omitted? Is this Saudi led coalition a genuine anti-IS coalition or another part of Saudi Arabia's campaign against Iran and Shias, which is fuelling the murderous bombing campaign in Yemen and unilaterally fuelling the sectarian divide and conflict throughout the ME?

It is difficult to suppress a laugh when we hear Saudis condemn what they call "Islamist extremism". This, from the country that has institutionalised the extremist Wahhabi ideology as the official State ideology, which has then exported that fundamentalist poison throughout the Muslim world, from one of the main financial backers of IS and from one of the countries that has armed and equipped IS, is hard to take seriously.

I wish I could find some reasons to be more optimistic about this initiative.