Sharif heads to Saudi Arabia to meet the King

1
250

Analyst says visits of Sunni states’ leaderships to King Salman hints at Saudi bid for ‘Sunni unity’

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will leave for Saudi Arabia today (Wednesday) for a three-day visit to the Kingdom on the invitation of King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, in what is seen as a Saudi bid to unify Sunnis against Iran and jihadists.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s met King Salman on Monday while Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi held talks with the Saudi monarch on Sunday.

Top officials from neighbouring nations Qatar, Kuwait, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates have already visited Salman since mid-February, and other Arab heads of state will follow, said Nawaf Obaid, a visiting fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University in the United States.

“Saudi Arabia is drastically going to re-energise its foreign policy to bring the kingdom back to its natural role as the main unifier of the Sunni world because of its unique attributes,” Obaid told AFP.

He was referring to the kingdom’s hosting of Islam’s holiest sites, the size of its economy, and its position as the world’s largest oil exporter.

“Clearly, things are shaping up in a very different way than they have been in the last several years.”

Salman acceded to the throne in January after the death of King Abdullah, aged about 90.

Cairo has accused Turkey of interfering in Egypt’s internal affairs and of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood.

Sisi and Erdogan have had strained relations since Sisi ousted president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, launching a crackdown on his Muslim Brotherhood which Qatar was also accused of backing.

But Obaid said keeping Turkey “on the sidelines” only weakens the Sunni world, which accounts for about 90 per cent of Muslims.

“So as long as you can start having a serious sustained discussion between the major Sunni powers then you can come up with some form of policy at some point down the road, dealing with Iran and dealing with ISIS,” he said, referring to the Islamic State group jihadists who have seized large parts of Iraq and Syria.

IS has claimed atrocities including the beheading of foreigners and Christians and the burning alive of a caged Jordanian fighter pilot.

Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab neighbours are part of a US-led military coalition conducting air strikes against the jihadist group.

Shia-dominated Iran competes with Saudi Arabia for influence in the region.

A Pakistan official told the foreign wire agency that Islamabad and Riyadh have been co-ordinating their positions for a long time.

However the official said that with about 20 per cent of its population Shia, Pakistan avoids “anything sectarian”.

CLOSE FRATERNAL BONDS:

Meanwhile in Islamabad, Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said Premier Sharif will be accompanied by a high-level delegation comprising Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi.

“This will be Sharif’s first official visit to the kingdom after he assumed the premier’s office in 2013,” she said.

The spokesperson said Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are tied in close fraternal bonds of shared faith and values. “Being the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, the King of Saudi Arabia has a special place in the hearts of every Pakistani,” Aslam said.

“Saudi Arabia also hosts more than 1.7 million Pakistanis whose remittances contribute substantially to the economy of Pakistan. Annual trade volume between the two countries exceeds $ 4.5 billion.”

It is hoped that Sharif’s official visit will provide an opportunity for the leadership of the two countries to discuss issues of mutual interest in the global and regional context which will further strengthen their existing bilateral relations.

1 COMMENT

Comments are closed.