Syed Ashraf questions joining Saudi-led coalition

Public administration minister Syed Ashraful Islam during Monday’s cabinet meeting questioned Bangladesh’s decision to join the Saudi Arabia-led ‘Islamic military coalition’ as the issue was not even discussed in any forum here.
Expressing his ignorance about the government’s decision, the ruling Awami League’s general secretary said, ‘We have read in newspapers that Bangladesh has joined the military coalition.’
Ashraf, being a member of parliament, told the cabinet that it required parliament’s prior approval to join any such military coalition, a minister told New Age, seeking anonymity.
In a move to convince his cabinet colleagues, foreign minister AH Mahmood Ali said it was no military coalition. ‘It is an anti-terrorism cooperation. Moreover, nothing has been finalised,’ the minister quoted Mahmood as saying in the meeting.
Ashraf, however, wanted to know the justification for Bangladesh’s joining the coalition when OIC member like Iran had opted to remain outside the initiative.
Chairing the weekly cabinet meeting at the secretariat, prime minister Sheikh Hasina at one stage said, Bangladesh’s foreign policy — friendship to all, malice to none — was very clear.
Joining such coalition would require signing formal multilateral agreement or agreements among the member countries, diplomats said.
As per the Article 145A of the Constitution, all treaties with foreign countries shall be submitted to the President, who shall cause them to be laid before Parliament.
The foreign ministry in mid-December announced that the government had decided to join the Saudi Arabia-led 34-nation ‘Islamic military coalition’ formed ‘to fight terrorism and violent extremism’ at the request of the Arab kingdom.
The coalition would set up a ‘joint operations center’ based in KSA to ‘coordinate and support military operations to fight terrorism’ across the Muslim world, Arab News reported earlier quoting Saudi defense minister Mohammed bin Salman.
Saudi foreign minister Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir phoned foreign minister Mahmood Ali requesting Bangladesh to join the centre as its founding member, state minister for foreign affairs M Shahriar Alam said on December 15.
‘We conveyed them that we would be happy to be a founding member of the centre,’ Alam said.
All the coalition partners are also members of the Organisation of Islamic Conference based in Jeddah.
The Saudi authorities have not yet clarified the modus operandi of the anti-terrorism coalition, according to the foreign ministry officials.
However, the issue was discussed during the foreign minister’s visit to the KSA in the first week of January.

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