Iran concerned over Raheel's appointment as head of Saudi-led military alliance: envoy

[Winchester]

Nothing wrong with this as long as there is no Pakistani involvement in Yemen. Our troops must not be in anyway used as sacrifial lambs while others are safe from the air dropping bombs.

However, the nature of Saudi-Pak relationship dictates that we ensure the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia and that can be done without going across the border.

The Iranians also need to learn some diplomatic norms on how to communicate their concerns to other states.

 

[Surenas]

Saddam out maneuvered every country until 1990 and then again out maneuvered every country until 2003. You too will continue out maneuvering until the end.

I'll guess I don't have to tell you that Israel attacked Iraq's nuclear facilities in the '80s, but hasn't had the balls to attack Iran up till this day, despite the fact that Iran has a much more developed nuclear industry than Iraq ever had. There is a reason why the US has refrained from attacking Iran too.

Iran draws strength from its cultural history and domestic resources. Combined with a highly nationalistic population and you'll see why other nations are wary for a military conflict.

In your country on other hand the US freely drone attacks your citizens, or executes covert special operations like the one against OBL in Abbottabad.

 

[Mamluk]

In your country on other hand the US freely drone attacks your citizens, or executes special operations like the one against OBL in Abbottabad.

Those terrorists are enemies of Pakistan.
Secret memos 'show Pakistan endorsed US drone strikes'

US has good intel on their movements, so we let them carry out drone strikes.

Iran draws strength from its cultural history and domestic resources. Combined with a highly nationalistic population and you'll see why other nations are wary for a military conflict.

Iran draws strength from it's population (almost 80 million, little more than Turkey) and resources. Your culture barely plays any role in your defence. Just delusion.

 

[M. Sarmad]

Salafi NATO and Shia eclipse

Pakistan announcing its membership to the now 41-state Saudi-led ‘Islamic Military Alliance’ a day before Friday’s Parachinar bombing has correlation, even if no causal efficacy. That Pakistan also confirmed the military leadership through Gen (r) Raheel Sharif, while militants were plotting the attack on the imambargah, further gorifies the symbolism.

Of course the only plausible critique on what might otherwise seem to be a noble endeavour of Muslim unity is that this Islamic Military Alliance is none of the three words it self-identifies with.

It’s not quite a military alliance when 18 (almost half) of the participants do not have a military presence in the coalition. Further, for it to be an alliance of any sort the security of each member states should be equal to that of Harmain Sharifaein – often a sacrilegious misnomer for the House of Saud.

For instance, one doesn’t expect Islamabad to take up the issue of funding for around 24,000 anti-Shia madrassas with Riyadh, or question the presence of Saudi middlemen like Malik Abdul Haq al-Meqqi that have helped sustain Shiaphobic militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in Pakistan.

Incidentally, LeJ al-Alami has orchestrated two bombings in the past 15 months in Parachinar alone. LeJA has also formally allied itself with ISIS in Pakistan, collaborating with the group that has been touted as the main adversary for this self-styled Islamic alliance.

So much for Pakistan’s military command then.

Even so, it’s the alliance’s claim to be ‘Islamic’ that continues to raise eyebrows as Shia dominant states Iran and Iraq remain sidelined. Even the Shia-majority, but secular, Azerbaijan isn’t there.

Yesterday, while expressing concerns over Gen (r) Raheel Sharif taking command of the Saudi-led coalition, Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Mehdi Honardoost, confirmed that Tehran had not received any invitation to be a part of this coalition.

In addition to the tangible sectarian bent, the alliance’s façade as a harbinger of Muslim unity is uncorked by the timing of the hastened patchwork.

The coalition was first announced by Saudi Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud in December 2015, as the kingdom entered the ninth month of its military intervention in Yemen and was planning the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which led to the tense standoff between Riyadh and Tehran, eventually culminating in severing of diplomatic ties in January 2016.

This meant that just a couple of weeks after the Pathankot attack that laid the foundation of Pakistan’s own diplomatic warfare with India throughout 2016, and on the eve of the Bacha Khan University attack, both the then Army Chief and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were in Riyadh trying to soothe Saudi concerns vis-à-vis Tehran.

Furthermore, the alliance was formed and aligned against ISIS only after the group overtly started targeting Saudi Arabia, culminating in July’s coordinated bombings in Medina, Qatif and Jeddah.

The countless Muslims being butchered and raped in Iraq and Syria, by a group that would’ve been long extinct had it not been for Saudi and Qatari commercial support for ISIS-controlled oil, were obviously fair game. For, al-Saud family only decided to designate ISIS as an enemy, and vied to muster military support from other Muslim countries, after the terror group had brought radical Salafist warfare to its birthplace.

In addition to anxiety over a potential takeover by its offspring, Saudi Arabia has been concerned about uncertain oil market share, and plunging foreign exchange, as the US hikes its production. As its oil hegemony is threatened, both by the US’ energy independence and its own limited reserves, al-Saud family has been banking on its Islamo-capitalist vandalism of Islamic heritage to ensure ideological stranglehold over the Harmaein Sharifaein as the principal income source in the future.

A post-nuclear-deal Iran threatens Saudi on both the ideological and oil fronts. Hence, Tehran’s deal with the US has further added to Riyadh’s suspicions of the long feared Shia Crescent – a hilal shaped corridor from Tehran to Beirut. That the Saudi-led coalition launched the Operation Decisive Storm against the Shia Houthi rebels on the same day (March 26, 2015) the representatives of Iran and P5+1 sat in Lausanne to discuss the nuclear deal, highlights the impetuous paranoia on the driving seat in Riyadh.

Saudi funding of anti-Shia militancy in Pakistan – the second largest Shia population in the world – has been owing to its wariness with regards to the aforementioned crescent blooming into a wolf moon. Saudis fear participation of Shia populations of Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon – in addition to the Shia majority states – in the kingdom’s encirclement with the compass firmly planted in Tehran.

It is in this context, amidst continued Shia killings at home, and Saudi’s gruesome war crimes in Yemen, that Islamabad’s decision to join the coalition – further aggravated by a Pakistani general leading it – is gross abandonment of the local Shia population.

It is naïve for Pakistan to think that passing a resolution against its involvement in Yemen, or not being a direct part of the bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels, rids itself of complicity. If nothing else, by providing military support to Saudi Arabia and GCC states, it frees up these countries’ resources for the onslaught in Yemen.

Furthermore, despite Saudi officials claiming that there is no sectarian tinge to the alliance, the “counter-terror” coalition’s definition of terrorism – as per Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) provisions – is problematic as well.

The preamble of the Convention of the OIC on Combating International Terrorism subjects the coalition to “abiding by… the provisions of the Islamic Sharia.” Incidentally jihadist groups follow a similar, albeit unwritten, convention on Sharia.

Furthermore, Article 2 (c) equates “aggression against kings” with terrorism. Not to mention that the leader of the coalition, Saudi Arabia, has officially declared atheism synonymous with terrorism.

In maintaining affiliation with Sharia, and clearly outlawing any democratic attempts to overthrow the rulers, Saudi Arabia has reduced the so-called Islamic military coalition to foot soldiers for the al-Saud crown and its Salafist ideology.

This military alliance, touted as the Muslim NATO, hence, in effect, is the Salafi NATO, trying simultaneously to ensure a permanent eclipse for the Shia Crescent and the hegemony of the narrowest, most radical brand of Islam in the Muslim world.

By signing up for the venture, Pakistan is becoming a guarantor of an imperialist war-mongering monarchy, and ensuring the exacerbation of Salafi stranglehold over the global Muslim community.

 

[Star Expedition]

Iran has nothing to worry about.
Victory in Yemen will solve all problems.

 

[Hakikat ve Hikmet]

Salafi NATO and Shia eclipse

Pakistan announcing its membership to the now 41-state Saudi-led ‘Islamic Military Alliance’ a day before Friday’s Parachinar bombing has correlation, even if no causal efficacy. That Pakistan also confirmed the military leadership through Gen (r) Raheel Sharif, while militants were plotting the attack on the imambargah, further gorifies the symbolism.

Of course the only plausible critique on what might otherwise seem to be a noble endeavour of Muslim unity is that this Islamic Military Alliance is none of the three words it self-identifies with.

It’s not quite a military alliance when 18 (almost half) of the participants do not have a military presence in the coalition. Further, for it to be an alliance of any sort the security of each member states should be equal to that of Harmain Sharifaein – often a sacrilegious misnomer for the House of Saud.

For instance, one doesn’t expect Islamabad to take up the issue of funding for around 24,000 anti-Shia madrassas with Riyadh, or question the presence of Saudi middlemen like Malik Abdul Haq al-Meqqi that have helped sustain Shiaphobic militant outfits like Lashkar-e-Jhangvi (LeJ) in Pakistan.

Incidentally, LeJ al-Alami has orchestrated two bombings in the past 15 months in Parachinar alone. LeJA has also formally allied itself with ISIS in Pakistan, collaborating with the group that has been touted as the main adversary for this self-styled Islamic alliance.

So much for Pakistan’s military command then.

Even so, it’s the alliance’s claim to be ‘Islamic’ that continues to raise eyebrows as Shia dominant states Iran and Iraq remain sidelined. Even the Shia-majority, but secular, Azerbaijan isn’t there.

Yesterday, while expressing concerns over Gen (r) Raheel Sharif taking command of the Saudi-led coalition, Iran’s Ambassador to Pakistan, Mehdi Honardoost, confirmed that Tehran had not received any invitation to be a part of this coalition.

In addition to the tangible sectarian bent, the alliance’s façade as a harbinger of Muslim unity is uncorked by the timing of the hastened patchwork.

The coalition was first announced by Saudi Defence Minister Mohammad bin Salman Al Saud in December 2015, as the kingdom entered the ninth month of its military intervention in Yemen and was planning the execution of Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, which led to the tense standoff between Riyadh and Tehran, eventually culminating in severing of diplomatic ties in January 2016.

This meant that just a couple of weeks after the Pathankot attack that laid the foundation of Pakistan’s own diplomatic warfare with India throughout 2016, and on the eve of the Bacha Khan University attack, both the then Army Chief and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif were in Riyadh trying to soothe Saudi concerns vis-à-vis Tehran.

Furthermore, the alliance was formed and aligned against ISIS only after the group overtly started targeting Saudi Arabia, culminating in July’s coordinated bombings in Medina, Qatif and Jeddah.

The countless Muslims being butchered and raped in Iraq and Syria, by a group that would’ve been long extinct had it not been for Saudi and Qatari commercial support for ISIS-controlled oil, were obviously fair game. For, al-Saud family only decided to designate ISIS as an enemy, and vied to muster military support from other Muslim countries, after the terror group had brought radical Salafist warfare to its birthplace.

In addition to anxiety over a potential takeover by its offspring, Saudi Arabia has been concerned about uncertain oil market share, and plunging foreign exchange, as the US hikes its production. As its oil hegemony is threatened, both by the US’ energy independence and its own limited reserves, al-Saud family has been banking on its Islamo-capitalist vandalism of Islamic heritage to ensure ideological stranglehold over the Harmaein Sharifaein as the principal income source in the future.

A post-nuclear-deal Iran threatens Saudi on both the ideological and oil fronts. Hence, Tehran’s deal with the US has further added to Riyadh’s suspicions of the long feared Shia Crescent – a hilal shaped corridor from Tehran to Beirut. That the Saudi-led coalition launched the Operation Decisive Storm against the Shia Houthi rebels on the same day (March 26, 2015) the representatives of Iran and P5+1 sat in Lausanne to discuss the nuclear deal, highlights the impetuous paranoia on the driving seat in Riyadh.

Saudi funding of anti-Shia militancy in Pakistan – the second largest Shia population in the world – has been owing to its wariness with regards to the aforementioned crescent blooming into a wolf moon. Saudis fear participation of Shia populations of Pakistan, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon – in addition to the Shia majority states – in the kingdom’s encirclement with the compass firmly planted in Tehran.

It is in this context, amidst continued Shia killings at home, and Saudi’s gruesome war crimes in Yemen, that Islamabad’s decision to join the coalition – further aggravated by a Pakistani general leading it – is gross abandonment of the local Shia population.

It is naïve for Pakistan to think that passing a resolution against its involvement in Yemen, or not being a direct part of the bombing campaign against the Houthi rebels, rids itself of complicity. If nothing else, by providing military support to Saudi Arabia and GCC states, it frees up these countries’ resources for the onslaught in Yemen.

Furthermore, despite Saudi officials claiming that there is no sectarian tinge to the alliance, the “counter-terror” coalition’s definition of terrorism – as per Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) provisions – is problematic as well.

The preamble of the Convention of the OIC on Combating International Terrorism subjects the coalition to “abiding by… the provisions of the Islamic Sharia.” Incidentally jihadist groups follow a similar, albeit unwritten, convention on Sharia.

Furthermore, Article 2 (c) equates “aggression against kings” with terrorism. Not to mention that the leader of the coalition, Saudi Arabia, has officially declared atheism synonymous with terrorism.

In maintaining affiliation with Sharia, and clearly outlawing any democratic attempts to overthrow the rulers, Saudi Arabia has reduced the so-called Islamic military coalition to foot soldiers for the al-Saud crown and its Salafist ideology.

This military alliance, touted as the Muslim NATO, hence, in effect, is the Salafi NATO, trying simultaneously to ensure a permanent eclipse for the Shia Crescent and the hegemony of the narrowest, most radical brand of Islam in the Muslim world.

By signing up for the venture, Pakistan is becoming a guarantor of an imperialist war-mongering monarchy, and ensuring the exacerbation of Salafi stranglehold over the global Muslim community.

As if we don't know what's happening inside Syria and Iran's history itself!!!!

 

[Surenas]

Those terrorists are enemies of Pakistan.
Secret memos 'show Pakistan endorsed US drone strikes'

US has good intel on their movements, so we let them carry out drone strikes.

95% of the people killed are innocent victims. You let them carry out these strikes because for your entire history you have been nothing but puppets.

Iran draws strength from it's population (almost 80 million, little more than Turkey) and resources. Your culture barely plays any role in your defence. Just delusion.

Don't reflect your stupidity of me. Read some articles. Iran's cultural history is what enables it to out maneuver other countries.

 

[Mamluk]

95% of the people killed are innocent victims. You let them carry out these strikes because for your entire history you have been nothing but puppets.

Puppet who held off a country of 1.4 billion (7 times larger) for 70 years. What has Iran achieved with all its resources? A Mullah theocracy that fingers small Arab states 1/4th of your size. What a great source of pride!

Iran's cultural history is what enables it to out maneuver other countries.

HOW? I know you have no answer and you'll find a way to not answer.

 

[Post Colonnial]

It is slightly unfair to condemn Raheel Sherieff or Pakistan for this entanglement. They were not really given a choice by the Saudis. And none of the three factions within the establishment are quite ready yet to standup against the Saud on the strength of Chinese support since the Chinese have very specific objectives and performance criteria.

There is also little doubt that Pakistani army will bear the brunt of any action in the middle east. However whether they will be given that role publicly or just shadows? Quite amazing that tens of thousands of soldiers are sent, cannot really keep it a secret, yet that's what Pakistani is forced to try to do. Poor guy Bajwa - must be already counting the days to hang up his boots! A job that was going to be a peaceful administration of highway patrol where the Chinese guys worked and the occasional self-bombings, has now turned into having to do real work

 

[airmarshal]

Im very concerned too.

This Saudi coalition is not a coalition of Muslim countries. If it was, it should have included Iran as well.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are having a long running feud in the Middle East. Both use religion to justify their geopolitics. Both have harmed Islam more than the enemies of Islam wanted to harm the religion.

Saudi inspired Wahhabism, which by itself was a peaceful ideology which was started by Mohammed bin Abdul Wahab to instill renaissance in Arab world. But this was hijacked by House of Saud and militarized to fight against the Ottomans under Arab nationalist banner and to garner sympathy and favor from British colonialists. Ever since the break up of Ottoman Empire, the religion of Islam has been put under the service of colonialists and imperialists through Saudi version of Wahhabism. First recent evidence was the Afghan war of 80s where mujahideen were indoctrinated with Saudi version and now ISIS. Both were sold as 'jihad' in Muslim world and both turned out to be projects to further the imperial interests.

This is a revealing article of how Islam has been used to further geopolitics in situations religion had little to do.

http://www.newstatesman.com/world-a...-arabia-exported-main-source-global-terrorism

Pakistan in this fight does not fit in anywhere. But in Pakistan there are many toadies enthralled by Saudi philosophy of religion. They adhere to and follow Saudi brand of Islam as the real Islam. Some in power structure are ideologically driven. Some like Nawaz Sharif are politically and morally compromised. Hence a combination two type in Pakistan power structure is compelling Pakistan to tow the Saudi line. A much saner approach will be to stay neutral and act as mediator building bridges between two countries. But for that, a leader is needed, not a boot licker like Nawaz Sharif trying to hide his corruption and hedging his bets for his political longevity.

The tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia are geopolitical. But due to these countries extensive use of religion to promote their self interests, the feud has become sectarian. Pakistan must not be seen as a country siding with one sect. Pakistan is neither Arab nor Persian. Its a unique country in Muslim world with 40% Shia population. It must stay neutral to avoid sectarian tensions in the country. Pakistan has struggled for a long time to slay the demons of sectarianism. It must try to stay out of fire set by Iran and Saudi Arabia in the Middle East.

General Raheel Sharif had been Pakistan's super star. If he wants us to respect him, he must avoid taking charge of such a polarizing coalition.

 

[Malik Alashter]

Oh the birth of ISIS is winning ? IS that why you're in asylum in US ( the country that raped your country from behind )

Im in the US way before even the US invade Iraq. if they raped us ones they raped you many with your nuke arsenal!
sir Iraq today with all the problems we have still respected world wide vs Pakistan with all due respect.

If Im against Pakistan joining this coalition that's because I hate see innocent fine soldiers of Pakistan used as canon foder for someone else!!

your soldiers should sacrifice their life for their homeland and that's it.

 

[SrNair]

Truth to be told .Gen Raheel Sharif is a very capable commander and it seems war would be in favour for Arab Alliance.

 

[RangeMaster]

In any case, if you make a wrong move we will raze Riadh & Tel Aviv to the ground. No matter who is standing on your side!
Obviously Arab world is not our enemy but in fact USA is steaming up Arabs against us. USA will regret if a conflict is going to get started in the region, their puppets can start a war against us but the finisher of the war is only Iran.
Hope for peace wahabi! we have a keen sword.

Oh come out of your day dreaming and stop talking about razing Riadh.The only thing you are mastered at is back bitting.If you were such a brave and honest nation your asses should not burn on Gwader.
Murdering thousands of innocent Muslims in syria,this is the only job you are doing at its best.

 

[Clutch]

I
sir Iraq today with all the problems we have still respected world wide vs Pakistan with all due respect.

What?... where did you pull this one from? lol... Pakistan... record number of tourists coming and rising... Iraq? May be the center of beheading tourism.

Pakistan one of the fastest growing economies in the world and projected to surpass most...Terror in Pakistan has by and large been defeated and is on the run...
Iraq, on the other hand is stuck in the oil quagmire with endless sectarian /civil strife? Hell... even the head of ISIS is an Iraqi named after your capital city (Baghdadi)...

No offence, I have nothing against Iraq ... but to compare Iraq with Pakistan is quite laughable... I believe you don't know much about Pakistan. Our sectarian issues are no where close to how bad your region... thank god.. end of the day, we are a more plural tolerant society.

Im tired of people's ignorance about Pakistan.

 

[IHK_PK]

When Iran was Allowing India to use its chahbahar port militarily without considering Pakistan.
These type things will happen then.