Arab states face unprecedented threat: Egypt's Sisi

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi said Saturday that the Arab countries are facing unprecedented threat to their identity.

"You are well aware of dangers posed by many of the issues we're facing [in the region], which amount to an unprecedented threat," al-Sisi said at opening of the 26th Arab summit in Egypt's Red Sea town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

"This [Arab] nation is undergoing the darkest of times and has never faced challenges to its Arab identity as it does today," he said, underlining the need "for joint Arab military action to face such challenges."

The Egyptian president went on to note that "some foreign parties are exploiting the circumstances Arab countries are undergoing to meddle into their internal affairs and attract a segment of its citizenry."

There are also "regional parties whose ambitions have led them to target Arab peoples," he said, without clarifying which parties he meant.

The summit is expected to tackle a host of issues, topped by the situation in Yemen, Libya and Syria, the Arab-Israeli conflict and the joint Arab action.

Saudi Arabia and several Arab allies launched a military offensive against the Shiite Houthi group in Yemen on Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia said the anti-Houthi campaign was in response to appeals by Yemeni President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi to "save the people [of Yemen] from the Houthi militias."

Fractious Yemen has been beset by turmoil since last September, when Shiite militants overran capital Sanaa, from which they have sought to extend their influence to other parts of the country as well.

Some Gulf countries accuse Shiite Iran of supporting Yemen's Houthi insurgency. (Anadolu Agency)