The curse of renting friends
Let the Saudis and the Iranians fight their own battles. We’ve got plenty on our plate
The writer is Executive Director News, Express News. He tweets @fahdhusain fahd.husain@tribune.com.pk
The Arab countries of the Middle East are doing what the Arab countries of the Middle East do best: cutting their nose to spite their face. Now they want us to partake of this self-mutilation. Thanks but no thanks.
But then the science of stupid kicks in.
On Friday, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif stood up on the floor of the National Assembly and declared that no decision had been taken to send Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia in context of the conflict in Yemen. But then he quickly added that Saudi Arabia will be defended against all threats. Really? So despite having a defence budget that makes ours look like grocery shopping, Saudi Arabia still needs us to defend it? All the latest weapons of war having been purchased with petro-dollar-dripping glee, the House of Saud wants to rent our troops to defend its own sovereignty? What gives? And what’s with this government and its love affair with the Saudis at the expense of our own national interests?
Something smells bad.
There’s a civil war raging in Yemen, and a Saudi-led coalition has launched air strikes against Houthi rebels who are said to be backed by Iran. Sectarian fires are burning bright. Traditionally, Pakistan has deliberately avoided getting sucked into the Arab world’s unending conflicts. Saudi Arabia and Iran, however, have strictly avoided any chance not to poke their noses into our affairs, thereby stoking sectarian embers within our borders. The science of stupid within our power corridors has ensured that we have done precious little to block these external influences and tell these brotherly nations to go take a hike.
Now it seems we are bored of having the flame from the Middle East come across and burn us: we would rather go across ourselves and jump into the inferno. Smart. Real smart.
The government is making a futile attempt to tiptoe through a minefield, but the Saudis are less circumspect. A report in the Saudi news agency SPA said Pakistan is among the Muslim countries outside the Gulf that have “declared their willingness to participate” in the offensive that the Saudis have launched against the Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. Here’s what a report in The Wall Street Journal says: “It remains unclear what military assistance the Saudis have asked for, though media reports suggest that Riyadh wants Pakistani participation in both air strikes and ground operations.” So when Khawaja Asif says Pakistan will not allow any violation of sovereignty of Saudi Arabia, he’s unimaginatively twisting words. Saudi Arabia is not being attacked; it’s doing the attacking.
It’s good to look out for your friends; but at your own expense? It’s so easy for us to put on our emotional blinkers and substitute them for hard-nosed realpolitik. We have had excellent ties with the Saudis, and have always faithfully done their bidding. We have made sincere attempts to build stronger ties with Iran and have done so, despite occasional hiccups and clash of interests. Let’s not forget we have the second largest population of Shias in the world after Iran. So what stops us from being brutally and ruthlessly honest about what our core interests are, and why they should always prevail over the interests of other countries, howsoever ‘friendly’ and ‘brotherly’ they might be.
So let’s peek into the minds of our friends and see what they think of us. WikiLeaks exposed a treasure trove of confidential information that gives us wonderful access to the assessments of diplomats and policymakers. On November 20, 2007, the American Charge D’ Affaires, Michael Gfoeller, had lunch with the Saudi ambassador to the US, Adil alJubair. He then cabled the conversation to his headquarters. AlJubair was expounding on then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
Gfoeller writes: “AlJubeir denied that Musharraf had come to the Kingdom to meet with exiled former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, although he carefully avoided ruling out such a meeting. Instead, he boldly asserted that, ‘We in Saudi Arabia are not observers in Pakistan, we are participants.’
“AlJubeir expressed considerable ‘disappointment’ in Sharif’s broken pledges to the Saudi Arabian government (SAG). He stated very clearly that the SAG has worked directly with Musharraf to have Sharif arrested on his return to Pakistan and immediately deported to the Kingdom. ‘We told Musharraf that we would receive him back and then keep him here as an honoured guest,’ AlJubeir said. He added that Prince Muqrin had been the SAG’s point man in restraining Sharif. Prince Muqrin was allowed to reveal the terms of Sharif’s asylum agreement, he noted. AlJubeir made it very clear that the SAG would seek to control Sharif’s movements in the future, even suggesting that he would be kept in a state only a little less severe than house arrest.”
The American diplomat continues: “AlJubeir added that he sees neither Sharif nor former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as a viable replacement for Musharraf. ‘With all his flaws,’ he said of Musharraf, ‘he is the only person that you or we have to work with now.’ He claimed that Sharif would be unable to control the Pakhtun-dominated Islamic insurgency in the tribal region near Afghanistan, while Bhutto would prove to be too divisive a figure to rule the country, which he characterised as ‘very tribal, much like our own country’.”
Gfoeller then adds his own assessment: “We note that the Saudis have an economic hold on Nawaz Sharif, since he was reportedly the first non-Saudi to receive a special economic development loan from the SAG, with which to develop a business while here in exile.”
So let’s get real: nations do not befriend other nations like individuals do. Is that too difficult to understand for those who make decisions on our behalf? Plunging ourselves into this Middle Eastern inferno is nothing short of madness. Even the wrong kind of statement by the government is enough to spark a flame within our borders. Do we really need this at a time when we are fighting our own battles?
Let the Saudis and the Iranians fight their own battles. We’ve got plenty on our plate.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2015.
But then the science of stupid kicks in.
On Friday, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif stood up on the floor of the National Assembly and declared that no decision had been taken to send Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia in context of the conflict in Yemen. But then he quickly added that Saudi Arabia will be defended against all threats. Really? So despite having a defence budget that makes ours look like grocery shopping, Saudi Arabia still needs us to defend it? All the latest weapons of war having been purchased with petro-dollar-dripping glee, the House of Saud wants to rent our troops to defend its own sovereignty? What gives? And what’s with this government and its love affair with the Saudis at the expense of our own national interests?
Something smells bad.
There’s a civil war raging in Yemen, and a Saudi-led coalition has launched air strikes against Houthi rebels who are said to be backed by Iran. Sectarian fires are burning bright. Traditionally, Pakistan has deliberately avoided getting sucked into the Arab world’s unending conflicts. Saudi Arabia and Iran, however, have strictly avoided any chance not to poke their noses into our affairs, thereby stoking sectarian embers within our borders. The science of stupid within our power corridors has ensured that we have done precious little to block these external influences and tell these brotherly nations to go take a hike.
Now it seems we are bored of having the flame from the Middle East come across and burn us: we would rather go across ourselves and jump into the inferno. Smart. Real smart.
The government is making a futile attempt to tiptoe through a minefield, but the Saudis are less circumspect. A report in the Saudi news agency SPA said Pakistan is among the Muslim countries outside the Gulf that have “declared their willingness to participate” in the offensive that the Saudis have launched against the Iran-backed rebels in Yemen. Here’s what a report in The Wall Street Journal says: “It remains unclear what military assistance the Saudis have asked for, though media reports suggest that Riyadh wants Pakistani participation in both air strikes and ground operations.” So when Khawaja Asif says Pakistan will not allow any violation of sovereignty of Saudi Arabia, he’s unimaginatively twisting words. Saudi Arabia is not being attacked; it’s doing the attacking.
It’s good to look out for your friends; but at your own expense? It’s so easy for us to put on our emotional blinkers and substitute them for hard-nosed realpolitik. We have had excellent ties with the Saudis, and have always faithfully done their bidding. We have made sincere attempts to build stronger ties with Iran and have done so, despite occasional hiccups and clash of interests. Let’s not forget we have the second largest population of Shias in the world after Iran. So what stops us from being brutally and ruthlessly honest about what our core interests are, and why they should always prevail over the interests of other countries, howsoever ‘friendly’ and ‘brotherly’ they might be.
So let’s peek into the minds of our friends and see what they think of us. WikiLeaks exposed a treasure trove of confidential information that gives us wonderful access to the assessments of diplomats and policymakers. On November 20, 2007, the American Charge D’ Affaires, Michael Gfoeller, had lunch with the Saudi ambassador to the US, Adil alJubair. He then cabled the conversation to his headquarters. AlJubair was expounding on then Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Saudi Arabia.
Gfoeller writes: “AlJubeir denied that Musharraf had come to the Kingdom to meet with exiled former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif, although he carefully avoided ruling out such a meeting. Instead, he boldly asserted that, ‘We in Saudi Arabia are not observers in Pakistan, we are participants.’
“AlJubeir expressed considerable ‘disappointment’ in Sharif’s broken pledges to the Saudi Arabian government (SAG). He stated very clearly that the SAG has worked directly with Musharraf to have Sharif arrested on his return to Pakistan and immediately deported to the Kingdom. ‘We told Musharraf that we would receive him back and then keep him here as an honoured guest,’ AlJubeir said. He added that Prince Muqrin had been the SAG’s point man in restraining Sharif. Prince Muqrin was allowed to reveal the terms of Sharif’s asylum agreement, he noted. AlJubeir made it very clear that the SAG would seek to control Sharif’s movements in the future, even suggesting that he would be kept in a state only a little less severe than house arrest.”
The American diplomat continues: “AlJubeir added that he sees neither Sharif nor former prime minister Benazir Bhutto as a viable replacement for Musharraf. ‘With all his flaws,’ he said of Musharraf, ‘he is the only person that you or we have to work with now.’ He claimed that Sharif would be unable to control the Pakhtun-dominated Islamic insurgency in the tribal region near Afghanistan, while Bhutto would prove to be too divisive a figure to rule the country, which he characterised as ‘very tribal, much like our own country’.”
Gfoeller then adds his own assessment: “We note that the Saudis have an economic hold on Nawaz Sharif, since he was reportedly the first non-Saudi to receive a special economic development loan from the SAG, with which to develop a business while here in exile.”
So let’s get real: nations do not befriend other nations like individuals do. Is that too difficult to understand for those who make decisions on our behalf? Plunging ourselves into this Middle Eastern inferno is nothing short of madness. Even the wrong kind of statement by the government is enough to spark a flame within our borders. Do we really need this at a time when we are fighting our own battles?
Let the Saudis and the Iranians fight their own battles. We’ve got plenty on our plate.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 29th, 2015.