Saudi Arabia has deployed thousands of troops from Egypt and Pakistan along its border with Iraq, amid fears of invasion by the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS).
Saudi Arabia has been strengthening its border defences since the crisis in Iraq heightened in June.
Panicked by the advance of ISIS, Riyadh has taken the drastic step of calling in military assistance from its close allies to shore up the long 500-mile border, Gulf security sources said last week.
Saudi Arabia spent an estimated 35 billion pounds on defence in 2013, beating Britain as the world’s fourth largest military spender.
This massive military precaution highlights Riyadh’s paranoia at the threat of being drawn into a war with the Al Qaeda splinter group.
ISIS declared the restoration of the caliphate on Sunday 29 June (first day of Ramadan).
Currently, the group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi controls an area stretching from Iraq’s Diyala province to Syria’s Aleppo.
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Their claim to the caliphate has been rejected by veteran Islamist groups and prominent figures of the jihadi movement who have been working towards the same goal.
Islamic political party Hizb ut-Tahrir, Al Qaeda’s official Syrian wing Jabhat al-Nusra, Al Azhar University, numerous Lebanese and Syrian Islamist groups, Jordanian jihadi clerics Sheikh Abu Qatada and Muhammad al-Maqdisi have all dismissed ISIS’ claim.
