Foreign Office Briefs the National Assembly on Saudi-Led Coalition

The Foreign Office briefed the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs on Tuesday about the specifics of Pakistan’s involvement in the 34 nation coalition lead by Saudi Arabia to fight terrorism.

In an in-camera briefing, the Foreign office reiterated that Pakistani troops will not be landing on foreign soil but will help to train security forces of the other members of the coalition. Also, Pakistan is interested in working with Saudi Arabia to engage the clergy and develop a counter narrative against extremism and the sharing of intelligence.

Some Pakistani’s were surprised to learn of their involvement in this 34 nation coalition and there have been undercurrents of criticism regarding the fact that Pakistan’s consent was not sought before being publicly included in this alliance. This coalition was formed in the wake of the diplomatic row between Saudi Arabia and Iran which was sparked by the execution of Saudi dissident Sheikh Nimr. It said the this is a coalition against terrorism not Iran in particular.

However, Saudi Arabia’s defence and foreign ministers provided some clarity about the extent of Pakistan’s involvement last week, seemingly, Pakistan may have made clear the Saudis the terms under which they will join the coalition, however it does not seem as if any agreements are set in stone, indeed the Foreign Office pointed out in a statement on the committee meeting that “the facets of communication and cooperation and different activities of the coalition will be decided after consultative meetings which will be hosted by Saudi Arabia in the near future”.

What is certain, for now at least, is that Pakistan will not be committing any ground forces with regards to any activities of this coalition, Awais Leghari the chairman of the National Assembly’s standing committee on Foreign Affairs said that Pakistan will not be involved in hostilities against any particular country but against terrorism, he went further to add

“we want to make it clear to our neighbor Iran, that we are not trying to isolate anyone”.

The committee also discussed the potential of a wider regional sectarian split resulting from the tensions between Riyadh and Tehran, Pakistan in particular being worried because it has deep sectarian divisions.

On the one hand, the committee was told that Pakistan will contribute to a peaceful resolution of the dispute between Iran and Saudi Arabia, however on the other hand, the Foreign Office sought to mitigate any impression that Pakistan was being even handed in the matter by stressing its close ties with the Saudi Kingdom saying that Pakistan and Saudi Arabia enjoy a multi-faceted coorperation including the fields of defence and counter-terrorism. Pakistan affirmed that any violation of the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia will evoke a strong response from Pakistan.

The committee was informed by the foreign office that Pakistan felt that it is still not the right time for mediating and that there is no immediate threat of the situating spiraling to an armed conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Mr. Leghari said political parties and the government are on the same page regarding the issue of the coalition. He went on to urge the political leadership of Pakistan to seek peace between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the interest of the Umma, because any disunity among Muslims will only benefit the enemy.

He also called for bipartisan efforts across all political parties on this critical issue.

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Posted by modousarr on Jan 13 2016. Filed under Latest News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.