An alliance unholy

Was it a summit or an arms sale moot? Was it an Arab-US conference or a Saudi declaration of the US loyalty? Was it an attempt to bring together the Muslim world against terrorism or create more divisions in them? These questions have very simple but alarming answers. What it represented was a meeting of men who share the same vision and passion for pomp, ostentatious display of crude wealth and a desire to dominate the world or the region at all costs. President Donald Trump and his family bestowed the honour of visiting, dancing and selling expensive war toys to the Saudi royal family. The royal family kneeled in gratitude to the charms of the Trump family and felt that a mere payment of $350 billion for a declaration of war against Iran was the deal of the century. Never has the hypocrisy of America and Saudi Arabia been so blatantly exposed as in this summit.

The House of Saud and the White House have always cosied up in the past to pursue mutual enemies. The Iran-Iraq war in the ’80s was supported by the West where Saddam Hussein, the blue-eyed boy, was paid billions by Saudis to fight against Iran. Over time he enjoyed the discreet support of the West with the US providing satellite intelligence on Iranian deployments and European countries supplying armaments and raw materials for gas and chemical weapons. The war lasted for eight years with an overall death toll of an estimated one million for Iran and 500,000 for Iraq.

The arms bazaar of America that contributes heavily in industrial development of the economy needs wars to keep its factories running. If Trump has to create jobs he has to create wars. Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, is the main wheeler-dealer in this business. Lockheed Martin the mega weapons producer for the US was negotiating the present deal through Kushner. The New York Times reports that the price tag was finalised by Kushner. He picked up the phone in the deal meeting and called Marillyn Hewson, the CEO of Lockheed Martin, and asked her if she could give the Saudis a discount. Hewson apparently said she would look into it, and she did. The deal has ensured factories to run lucratively for the next 10 years. Ironically, Lockheed Martin hailed this deal as great for Saudi economy. The company claimed that the deal “will directly contribute to [Saudi Arabia’s] Vision 2030 by opening the door for thousands of highly skilled jobs in new economic sectors.”

Aside from business politics it was also a neat deal. The statement of Trump against Iran was an open declaration of the continuation of the age-old divide and rule policy. He said “From Lebanon to Iraq to Yemen, Iran funds arms and trains terrorists, militias and other extremist groups that spread destruction and chaos across the region. It is a government that speaks openly of mass murder, vowing the destruction of Israel, death to America, and ruin for many leaders and nations in this very room.” This is almost laughable when we consider the fact that 9/11 was planned and conducted by Saudi citizens and the fact that Saudis head the list of countries whose nationals have conducted 19 attacks on America since 9/11 causing death of 2,369 Americans.



For America, it is as easy as a video game of Mortal Combat. They use Saudis to fund wars, get their weapon depots running and show job numbers going up to win a second term. Aside from Lockheed Martin, General Electric and Dow Chemical, the two American giants, are going to get business in a separate deal amounting to almost $55 billion. For Saudis, their obsession to become a regional power by crushing Iran with the sectarian supremacy agenda, an American backing would mean the possibility of Iran being cut off from the Western world, once again.

However, it is absolutely confounding why Pakistan is subjecting itself to this humiliating and dangerous game of flaring up sectarian terrorism. For Pakistan this alliance spells doom. Firstly because of the degrading dismissal of the prime minister speech and then the complete disregard of Trump on Pakistan’s role as a frontline ally on the war on terror. While the prime minister was made to wait as a back bencher, both India’s and Afghanistan’s names were highlighted for their role in fighting terrorism. This spells trouble for Pakistan on all ends. Raheel Sharif, the ex-army chief, is leading the grand military alliance and is thus, going to spearhead the fight against Iran and Yemen — the two countries on the Saudi hit list. This will be a repeat of our interference in the Afghanistan war, which led to a terror backlash that has destroyed Pakistan’s security and development.

Summits are judged less by their content and more by their nuances. The tone, statements and deals brokered in this summit are ominous. The $350 billion deal does not talk about human development in Saudi Arabia or the Middle East and will focus on war development. Already the terror attacks have widened their scale in Europe as was evident by the attack in Manchester and are likely to affect the US and other countries in the future. Pakistan will be doing exactly the opposite of what its parliament decided, ie, to stay away from Yemen and other Saudi conflicts. Saudi war on Yemen has created serious human rights violation with over 10,000 deaths, including 1,400 children, destroying 2,000 schools according to Unicef.

A Pakistani heading the military coalition will bring unintended consequences the way it did post-Afghan war in the ’80s. From a foreign policy angle, this stance is illogical, from an international relations perspective this is undesirable, but most of all from a human perspective this is unacceptable. Let us learn from history and not be part of a tragedy foretold.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 28^th, 2017.

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