A diplomatic challenge

Iran is reaching out to regional countries amid escalating tensions with the United States. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had visited Beijing last week and won assurances that “China firmly opposes unilateral sanctions and the so-called ‘long-arm’ jurisdiction imposed by the United States on Iran”. Zarif is now coming to Pakistan later this week, pretty obviously to explain Iranian perspective on the developments in the region in a bid to gain diplomatic support. Zarif’s visit precedes two important summit meetings involving the Islamic world. While a two-day summit of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is already scheduled in Makkah from May 30 to 31, Saudi Arabia has also convened an emergency summit of the Arab League on May 30 to discuss the recent ‘aggression and their consequences’. Saudi Arabia is understood to push for resolutions against Iran at both summits.

Pakistan has nothing to do with the summit at the level of the Arab League, but the one of the OIC is sure to put Pakistan in a difficult situation. It would be caught between two stools — a next door neighbour; and a longtime ally who has supported Pakistan time and again with aid, assistance, loan and oil. The situation is indeed a test of the diplomatic skills of the incumbent leadership. While siding with one of the two does not appear to be an option, a balancing act would not be easy either.

Even though, for Pakistan, a third prong in the equation — the United States of America — is tricky too, our Foreign Office has taken a fairly clear position, criticising the Donald Trump administration for stepping up the tension in an already-volatile region. However, dealing with two friends at daggers drawn with each other offers the real challenge for our diplomatic corps. Staying neutral between Saudi Arabia and Iran would be the best position for Pakistan to take in the deteriorating regional environment, but alongside that it also needs to make use of whatever influence it has to oppose the US designs that are primarily meant to realise a regime change in Iran.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 23^rd, 2019.

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