No ground troops for Saudi-led coalition: Aziz

PM’s aide, however, says threat to Saudi Arabia’s ‘territorial integrity’ will evoke strong response from Pakistan

ISLAMABAD:

Clarifying Pakistan’s role in the 34-nation Saudi-led military coalition of Islamic countries, the prime minister’s top foreign policy aide has said that Pakistan will not deploy its ground forces to any country.  Sartaj Aziz was briefing the National Assembly Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs which was convened to discuss Pakistan’s stance on the Saudi-led coalition and tensions between Riyadh and Tehran.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office, Aziz said Saudi Arabia is a close friend of Pakistan and any threat to its ‘territorial integrity’ will evoke a strong response from Pakistan.

“In keeping with Pakistan’s unflinching commitment to combating terrorism and support for all regional and international efforts to eliminate the menace of terrorism, Pakistan welcomed the formation of the coalition to counter terrorism,” it said. The facets of cooperation and different activities of the coalition will be decided after consultative meetings which will be hosted by Saudi Arabia in the near future.

However, a member of the committee told The Express Tribune that Aziz categorically assured the panel Pakistan would not spare troops for any country, including Saudi Arabia.

“Aziz said Saudi Arabia has neither asked Pakistan for ground troops nor will we send any,” said the member, who requested not to be named since the briefing was in-camera. He said the panel was told that Pakistan has never deployed troops outside the country except for UN peacekeeping missions.



Speculations were rife about the role of Pakistan ever since it joined the 34-nation coalition that Riyadh announced on December 15 in an apparent bid to fight terrorism and extremism.

Last week, in a space of three days, Saudi defence and foreign ministers visited Islamabad to brief Pakistan’s civil and military authorities on the new coalition.

There are also fears that the Saudi initiative may be against Iran. The relationship between Riyadh and Tehran has got increasingly hostile after the execution of a leading Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia. Following the incident the Saudi Embassy in Tehran was ransacked and set on fire and Riyadh broke all ties with Tehran.

Aziz said the Saudi coalition was not against any specific country and that was the reason Pakistan announced its participation in it. He said Pakistan had always backed any regional or international effort against terrorist groups such as Islamic State or Da’ish and al Qaeda.

In this context, Pakistan will not only share its expertise and intelligence but will also provide arms and ammunition to Saudi Arabia in fighting the threat of terrorism, Aziz was quoted as saying.

On Saudi-Iran row, he said Pakistan was not taking sides and instead was following a ‘balanced approach’ on the tensions between the two key Muslim countries.

He hoped the situation would improve after a meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) scheduled for later this week. “In order to de-escalate tensions between the two countries, Pakistan will play its due role keeping in view its national interest and people’s aspiration.”

Some members of the committee suggested the government invite all the parties to take them into confidence on Saudi-Iran tensions as well as the Saudi-led coalition.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting, the committee’s chairman Owais Leghari said both opposition and treasury members appreciated Pakistan’s ‘positive and balanced approach’ on the current crisis in the Middle East. “Pakistan must act as a ‘mediator’ to defuse tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran,” he said.

All members of the committee expressed concerns over the emerging issue and hoped Pakistan’s political leadership could defuse tensions between the two “brotherly countries to avoid disunity in Muslim Ummah which will only benefit the enemies”, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 13^th, 2016.