The U.S.-led coalition of 65 countries assembled for a bombing blitz against ISIS is reportedly falling apart — with less than a dozen nations contributing anything, and support from key Arab allies disappearing.
The Saudis haven't flown a bombing mission in nearly three months, Jordan stopped flying sorties in August, and the United Arab Emirates hasn't flown one since March, the
Washington Times reports Tuesday, citing information from an unnamed Pentagon official.
A former Obama administration official tells the Times that Persian Gulf Arab powers have focused their military resources on helping Saudi Arabia wage war against Houthi rebels — which are seen as Iranian proxies in neighboring Yemen.
"They're eye-deep in Yemen now, and their attention is completely skewed in that direction," the former officials tells the Times. "It's sucked up all the sorties and ground forces that we had wanted to deploy in Iraq and maybe in Syria."
"Their calculation was that the Americans would take care of leading the coalition against Daesh while they take care of fighting the Iranians in Yemen," he added, using another term for ISIS.
J. Matthew McInnis, a Mideast-focused fellow with the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, explains the Saudis' involvement with the threat posed by Iran is understandable.
"They still recognize ISIS as a problem," he tells the Times. "But since the Iran nuclear deal, they're really more focused on the Iran threat and, first and foremost for them, that's in Yemen, where they saw Iran trying to get a foothold."
One expert blasts the Obama administration for not doing a good job in leading U.S. allies in the coalition, including Turkey, Germany, Britain, Australia and France.
"This is a '65-country coalition' of which only about nine are doing something," Anthony Cordesman at the Center for Strategic International Studies in Washington tells the Times.
"I can't think of a single public document that explained in any coherent way what the strategy is that we have for the air war, or what more needs to be done. So I find it difficult to get upset about the lack of allied support, particularly when the Europeans are focused on what's happening in Europe and the Gulf States are concerned about Yemen."
"There is no sort of automatic tendency of people in the Middle East who have different strategic objectives and goals to follow us, particularly when it isn't quite clear what our goals are," he added.
But the Obama administration rejects the criticism, with one unnamed official insisting several Arab powers remain "very much a part of the effort."
"Even if the airstrikes are not there because of the focus on Yemen, they're still allowing the use of their bases, and they're still very much involved with the humanitarian effort and the finance effort," the unnamed official tells the Times.
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