Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf has paid a visit to Riyadh in March, and he is scheduled to visit Tehran in the coming days. The scale of the task ahead appears to be understood. The appointment of General (retd) Raheel Sharif (on a Saudi invitation) is a cog in the delicate diplomatic machinery with the potential to blow up in the face of Pakistan by antagonising Iran. It now transpires that a condition of the appointment was that such a rapprochement would be sought and that if the Saudi alliance was in any way shown to be sectarian in nature then Pakistan reserved the right to withdraw. This is precisely the greatest concern of the Iranians who are supporters of the Houthi rebels in Yemen who are fighting the forces of Saudi Arabia. That conflict is sectarian in nature and it is not difficult to see why there are shared anxieties.
There are clear and objective risks in the moves that Pakistan is making but there is also the potential for multiple positive outcomes — more winners than losers with the aggregate effect of a regional lowering of tensions. We support these moves, but urge that all concerned tread with the greatest of care.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 25th, 2017.
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