A destabilising move
For now Pakistan needs to pursue a course of masterly inactivity, preserving and protecting its own best interests
The severing of all ties between the state of Qatar and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen is going to have profound and far-reaching consequences regionally and internationally. It is no understatement to say that this is an unprecedented schism in the ranks of the most powerful members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and is prompted, according to the states doing the severing, by Qatari support for the Muslim Brotherhood which is coincidentally the oldest Islamist movement in the world — as well as accusations of Qatari backing for the arch-antagonist at least of Saudi Arabia — Iran.
Qatar has also been expelled from the nebulous coalition formed by Riyadh to ‘fight terrorism.’ It substantially adds to the complexity of foreign relations management for Pakistan — which still and despite a clear and pressing need does not have a foreign minister. Qatar is an international transport hub used by a host of airlines, and home to the Al Jazeera TV station as well as the future host of the 2022 World Cup football series. The Afghan Taliban has an office in Doha. There is an offshore gas field that Qatar harvests in conjunction with Iran. Trouble looms.
Reacting swiftly, Pakistan has said that it has no immediate plans to cut its own ties with Qatar and nor should it. A middle course has to be steered keeping in mind the necessity to keep doors open with Iran. Relations with Riyadh need to be carefully balanced as well, but the overriding imperative is that Islamabad keeps a healthy distance between itself and the conflicts raging across the Arab world. Some may view the Saudi accusations that Qatar is ‘embracing multiple terrorist and sectarian groups and spreading their ideology’ as disingenuous there being no shortage of accusations similarly aimed at Riyadh by the international community. There can be no doubt that Riyadh and Tehran both operate proxies in their conflicts, and that Doha plays a part in that primarily in the Iranian camp.
For now Pakistan needs to pursue a course of masterly inactivity, preserving and protecting its own best interests but at a distance from the turmoil. This is not our fight.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2017.
Qatar has also been expelled from the nebulous coalition formed by Riyadh to ‘fight terrorism.’ It substantially adds to the complexity of foreign relations management for Pakistan — which still and despite a clear and pressing need does not have a foreign minister. Qatar is an international transport hub used by a host of airlines, and home to the Al Jazeera TV station as well as the future host of the 2022 World Cup football series. The Afghan Taliban has an office in Doha. There is an offshore gas field that Qatar harvests in conjunction with Iran. Trouble looms.
Reacting swiftly, Pakistan has said that it has no immediate plans to cut its own ties with Qatar and nor should it. A middle course has to be steered keeping in mind the necessity to keep doors open with Iran. Relations with Riyadh need to be carefully balanced as well, but the overriding imperative is that Islamabad keeps a healthy distance between itself and the conflicts raging across the Arab world. Some may view the Saudi accusations that Qatar is ‘embracing multiple terrorist and sectarian groups and spreading their ideology’ as disingenuous there being no shortage of accusations similarly aimed at Riyadh by the international community. There can be no doubt that Riyadh and Tehran both operate proxies in their conflicts, and that Doha plays a part in that primarily in the Iranian camp.
For now Pakistan needs to pursue a course of masterly inactivity, preserving and protecting its own best interests but at a distance from the turmoil. This is not our fight.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 6th, 2017.