Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif accompanied by Chief of Army Staff General Raheel Sharif will visit Saudi Arabia and Iran on Monday to help reduce diplomatic tensions between the two Islamic countries.
The Prime Minister on Monday will depart for Riyadh, where he will meet with Saudi King Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. He will also hold meetings with high Saudi officials.
On Tuesday, Nawaz Sharif will meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Tehran.
Besides the army chief, the Prime Minister will also be accompanied by his Advisor on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz and Special Assistant Tariq Fatmi.
It may be added that the ties between the two countries were already strained over the war in Syria. Riyadh severed the diplomatic ties after ransacking of its embassy in Tehran by protestors in the aftermath of execution of a cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr in Saudi Arabia.
Good move by PM with COAS Pakistan should play mediator role instead favoring any of them.We have our own intrest and both countries have a significant inportance for us.In case of any unpleasnt event happen between the two would directly effect Pakistan ..
It is good to hear that Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and army chief General Raheel Sharif have decided to make a dash together to Saudi Arabia and Iran with the obvious intention of mediating between Saudi Arabia and Iran. And what is even better is that the Chinese President is also visiting the two countries with obvious plans to try to bring to an end the needless animosity between the two countries which is adversely affecting both, apart from destabilizing the whole region.. Not only that but the proxy war that Saudi Arabia and Iran are fighting all over is also strengthening monsters like Daish (Islamic State) created as a consequence of the Western invasion and destabilization of Egypt, Libya and Syria.
It is there extremely important for Saudi Arabia and Iran to forget their differences and join hands to fight Daish together with other Islamic countries. After Paris attack, the Western countries have accelerated their pace against Daish but their action is still limited to aerial bombardment which, on its own, is unable to eliminate Daish.
The Middle East region still holds plentiful resources to enable both Saudis and Iranians to live in a fair degree of prosperity so there really is not reason for them to fight each other and create circumstances which stand to harm them both, while also destabilizing the whole region and even far beyond.
The main problem in relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia or other Gulf countries has been that while Pakistanis leaders in all sectors get very tough and act like Pharaohs with their own citizens, they turn meek as lambs before the leaders of other states even much smaller than Pakistan and thus reduce themselves to the status not much above that of beggars.
And having become used to seeing even top Pakistani leadership in that subservient role, the foreign rulers get shocked and annoyed when Pakistani leaders put up even a little bit of resistance to their demands. Just how the UAE minister had reacted to the refusal of Pakistan to send forces to fight in Yemen is a clear proof of this, if a proof was required.
Also, as compared to us, Egypt depends on Saudi Arabia much more than us. First of all, large number of Egyptians work there. Moreover, when after overthrowing democratically elected Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s military dictator Abdel Fatah el-Sisi was in a mess, these were Saudi and Gulf rulers who bailed him out with a US$ 10 billion aid package.
And Saudi Arabia has recently offered him another 30 billion Saudi Riyal in aid which approximates to US $ 7.5 billion. And even after taking all this aid, as well as other favours, Egyptian dictator does not behave before the Saudi Royals in a beggarly fashion like Pakistani leaders do.
So, in Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf rulers, any problem that arises is basically of Pakistan origin.
As such, the top Pakistani leadership visiting Saudi Arabia and Iran has to display a fine balance of strength and diplomacy, so as not to ‘yield’ unnecessarily and managed to take a balance and positive stand on the Saudi-Iranian tussle and to get it across without appearing to be unnecessarily rude.
We have got to remember that the Saudis and Gulf rulers have stood by us in our times of need and have helped us in various ways, including the remittance from our large number of workers based there. And mind you, Indians and others could easily replace Pakistani workers in Saudi Arabia and Gulf countries.
Karachi
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