Cairo, Aug 26 (IANS): The Arab League on Wednesday decided to postpone the meeting of the Joint Arab Defence Council which was due to be held on Thursday.

The secretariat of the League said in a press statement that it has received a request from Saudi Arabia to postpone the meeting without new date set for it, Xinhua reported.

The meeting was supposed to approve the protocol of forming an Arab joint force.

The secretariat said Bahrain, Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates have also supported the Saudi request.

Arab leaders who met in Egypt on March 28-29 agreed to form a joint military force to counter growing security threats.

Prior to the decision to form the military force, Saudi Arabia formed an Arab military coalition in March without getting the permission of the Arab League or the United Nations Security Council.

The coalition has been fighting the Shiite Houthi rebel group which seized parts of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa.

The idea of forming a joint force was initiated by Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi to face common challenges that threaten the Arab national security.