Alliance against terror: Islamabad backs Saudi coalition, with caution

Pakistan is awaiting details to decide extent of its participation: FO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday announced its support to the newly formed Saudi-led military alliance against terrorism but said the extent of its involvement in the coalition is yet to be decided.

In its first formal reaction to Saudi Arabia’s announcement of new military alliance against ultraorthodox Middle Eastern terrorist outfit Islamic State or Da’ish and other terrorist outfits, the Foreign Office in a statement said Pakistan ‘welcomes the formation of 34-nation alliance to counter terrorism.’

However, the statement said Pakistan is awaiting further details to decide the extent of its participation in different activities of the alliance.

The carefully worded official response suggested that Pakistan’s participation in the alliance will likely remain limited to the coordination, intelligence sharing and expertise in counter-terror efforts.

A senior official, who requested not to be named, ruled out the possibility of sparing Pakistani troops for the Saudi alliance, something that carries both domestic and international implications.

Announcing the alliance, the Saudi Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud on Tuesday said the new grouping of 34 Islamic countries would ‘coordinate’ efforts to fight terrorism in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Afghanistan.

However, he offered few concrete indications as to how the military efforts would proceed.

The Saudi Arabia’s state news agency, SPA, said a joint operations centre based in Riyadh will coordinate and support military operations.

A long list of Arab countries such as Egypt, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, together with Islamic countries like Turkey, Malaysia, Pakistan and African states were mentioned as allies.

According to the Foreign Office, Pakistan’s support to this new Saudi arrangement is based on its policy of backing all regional and international efforts to combat militancy, extremism and terrorism.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 17^th,  2015.