Pakistan draws redlines for joining Saudi alliance

[caylu]

We will be stupid if we back out of this.

Iran is already a hostile neighbors. Anybody can see that in last couple of years when ever India shelled on eastern borders, iran also shelled on western borders.

Secondly Uzair Baloch, Altaf Hussain, Kalbhushan Yadev all are backed by Iranians.

Moreoever it was Iran who went to UN against our Nuclear program and became a witness which ultimately resulted in Pakistan to put Dr. Abdul Qadir on house arrest and face other consequences.

Its not the fight between Saudi Arab and Iran. its a fight between Islam and those who want to stop Islam. The killer of Hazrat Umer (RA) is celebrated in Iran, the Day of the Shahadat of Hazrat Usman is an Eid Day for them. So we will be stupid to realise its a fight between two nation, its a fight between ideologies.

 

[Hrk19]

It's not about being a slave to someone, it's about balancing relationships

If the Iranians can be cool with Pakistan's worst enemy and also try to balance relations with Pakistan then Pakistan can be cool with the Saudis and balance relations with Iran.

Works both ways and there should be no hard feelings.

the only sensible answer here.
i wonder why these pro iran pakistanis keep forgetting that iran has a defence pact w

Does Foreign Office of Pakistan even knows that it has signed a declaration of Riyadh Summit which specifies TORs indicating Iran as terrorist sponsoring country and how to denounce Iranian Regime? All i can say that there is no use of crying now Mr. Foreign Office of Pakistan. Water has flown beneath the bridges. Now they are giving such statements just to clam down opposition.

1. Pakistan signed the declaration denouncing Iranian regime
2. Pakistan signed the declaration announcing contribution to joint force to fight terrorism whereas Iran is singled out as terror sponsoring regime
3. Pakistan's ex army chief is already serving/ leading the IMFAT coalition

and here for domestic audience they announce red lines, making fool out of opposition. Well played FO well played.

http://alummahworld.com/article/719/middleeast

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again,it does not matter and its a good thing we did,remember when iran threatened to send forces across the border,yeah that.
you seemed to very easily forget,i wonder why?

 

[shahbaz baig]

i have told you before.. pakistan will never let anyone to invade iran.. no matter what.. always remember it..
regional countries have to work together to save their own interests with iran i.e pak,india,china & russia.

 

[punit]

If they weaseled out of Yemen, I'm sure they can weasel out of this situation.

not so easy Due to : 1. Raheel sharif appointment , and 2. Riyad Declaration.
After riyad declaration there is not even a fig leaf to hide the true nature of So called Muslim alliance. its Anti iran alliance.as simple as that.

 

[DJ_Viper]

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has decided to draw certain ‘redlines’ for becoming part of the Saudi-led Islamic Military Alliance against Terrorism (IMAT) in an effort to avoid the negative fallout of its participation in the initiative that has potential to undermine ties with neighbouring Iran.

This alliance is doomed to fail. The goals of this alliance aren't clear and eventually, it would become a Saudi sponsored insurance policy against Iran. Iran is a huge issue within itself and to the globe. But Pakistan here is making a smart decision.
With her growing economy and a nuke power status, she should just focused on economic growth and getting internally strong, plus adding more military muscle. Getting into any conflict will only weaken that goal. Pakistan is well on her way towards being one of the top 20 and then top 15 economies in the next few years. Leaving many Arab nations way behind in prosperity. That goal needs to be achieved no matter what. With a hostile India and a hostile Afghanistan, you couldn't achieve that goal with a hostile Iran on the third side. So a smart move.

Our Political Leadership is slave to the Royal Saudi Family due to both Business and Personal Favors they received.

Common man, you read good posts and then you read crap like the above. Is it really true? If someone was "such" a slave, half of your army would be serving in KSA today fighting Yemen. Why do people ruin a factual argument based on personal bias?

 

[Dhara]

Pakistan never wants to join any coalition but tricked by Saudis and now they are trying to ride two boats going opposite directions.

In this current scenario they should open up wisely against Iran and milk Saudis well to get latest weapons and billions of USD for military aid since Iran can't give Pakistan anything other then betrayal and suspicion since Iran is being ruled by Shia Mullaz who sees Pakistan as junior Saudia.

1. Pakistan should actively join coalition.
2. Because of Pakistani presence Iranian stance will became week.
3. Because of Pakistani involvement Iran may stop or slow down militia activities in Arab world and may lead to peaceful, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.

In my personal opinion Pakistan should join coalition, it is better for all.

 

[Cthulhu]

The killer of Hazrat Umer (RA) is celebrated in Iran

Wrong, I don't even know who killed Hazrat Umer (RA), the alone to celebrate his killer.

the Day of the Shahadat of Hazrat Usman is an Eid Day for them

Wrong, The first day of spring is the Eid day for us in our official calendar (Solar Hijri), Day of the Shahadat of Hazrat Usman is a day in lunar calendar which is cycling through a solar year, just like when one year the Ramadan is in the middle of summer and a few years later it's in the middle of winter.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iranian_calendars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_Iran
So if you want your foreign policy to be based on you religious hatred against us, at least you might wanna get your facts right.

 

[Kambojaric]

A balanced approach is the right approach. We have no beef with either the Saudis or Iran. Having said that the balanced approach faction will increasingly become weaker the stronger Indian-Iranian ties become. Already Chahbahar is seen with a lot of suspicion (especially post the Yadav case). Even if the Iranians have no intent in working against Pakistan, they have indirectly granted India a legitimiate presence next to one of Pakistan's most volatile regions. If Indian presence in this region continues to grow I'm afraid sooner or later the pro-Saudi faction will gain enough sympathy domestically to move ahead with this alliance, which is a shame because purely demographically speaking, Pakistanis are the only people in the wider region who have a positive view of Iran.

 

[MM_Haider]

the only sensible answer here.
i wonder why these pro iran pakistanis keep forgetting that iran has a defence pact w

again,it does not matter and its a good thing we did,remember when iran threatened to send forces across the border,yeah that.
you seemed to very easily forget,i wonder why?

so at one point e have reservations on this coalition and on the other we are happy signing this declaration.. we cannot have best of both of the worlds..

 

[Cthulhu]

A balanced approach is the right approach. We have no beef with either the Saudis or Iran. Having said that the balanced approach faction will increasingly become weaker the stronger Indian-Iranian ties become. Already Chahbahar is seen with a lot of suspicion (especially post the Yadav case). Even if the Iranians have no intent in working against Pakistan, they have indirectly granted India a legitimiate presence next to one of Pakistan's most volatile regions. If Indian presence in this region continues to grow I'm afraid sooner or later the pro-Saudi faction will gain enough sympathy domestically to move ahead with this alliance, which is a shame because purely demographically speaking, Pakistanis are the only people in the wider region who have a positive view of Iran.

Well, so far we have kept everything balanced between China, Pakistan and India, our government even made a 50-50 partnership between Chinese and Indians in Chabahar investments as a precondition too, and when it completes, we're gonna be fully in charge (You can see this video ☟, maybe from 20:45 if it's too long for you), so why you see Chabahar with a lot of suspicion?

 

[SabzShaheen]

This alliance is doomed to fail. The goals of this alliance aren't clear and eventually, it would become a Saudi sponsored insurance policy against Iran. Iran is a huge issue within itself and to the globe. But Pakistan here is making a smart decision.
With her growing economy and a nuke power status, she should just focused on economic growth and getting internally strong, plus adding more military muscle. Getting into any conflict will only weaken that goal. Pakistan is well on her way towards being one of the top 20 and then top 15 economies in the next few years. Leaving many Arab nations way behind in prosperity. That goal needs to be achieved no matter what. With a hostile India and a hostile Afghanistan, you couldn't achieve that goal with a hostile Iran on the third side. So a smart move.

While it's true that the goals aren't clear, there may still be hope for this alliance not becoming an anti-Iranian defence organisation as a few of Iran's allies or countries that are on good terms with them are also part of the alliance such as Oman, Indonesia and Lebanon. Also, with Raheel Sharif heading the alliance, it is very unlikely that any direct actions against Iran will be taken. On the other hand, it is likely that the IMA will combat Iranian-sponsored proxies in countries like Yemen and Syria but if Iran has any objections to that, that's on them.

 

[darksider]

A balanced approach by Pakistan, hopefully this news is true.

When will iran fire a mortar again and kill a Pakistani civilian?

 

[Meengla]

I see zero percent chance of Pakistan actually working against Iran. Pakistan will milk KSA, will try to be in the good books of Trump but will not work against Iran. It will be a balancing act and I think KSA understands that Pakistan simply cannot have too hostile border with Iran.
Also, with more and more involvement with China in Pakistan, I think Pakistan's relations with KSA will be weaker and weaker.
This is not the first time Pakistan has been put in this situation. Remember what Musharraf has granted to GW Bush after their Camp David summit: Pakistan had, 'in principle', decided to send troops to Iraq's huge quagmire. No such thing happened and Pakistan was able to milk Americans and probably the Saudis in return.

PS. The leaders of Iran and KSA are playing straight into the hands of remote powers. Stupid baboons!!

 

[Riz]

We all Pakistanis will support our govt decision, no matter what will be the consequences of not joining the Islamic collating against a of Muslim country, let the arabs and iran fight eachother on begalf of amrica and Israel , we will never support any of them, call back general raheel shrif as this is not Islamic collating now after joining amrica and isreal

 

[Kambojaric]

Well, so far we have kept everything balanced between China, Pakistan and India, our government even made a 50-50 partnership between Chinese and Indians in Chabahar investments as a precondition too, and when it completes, we're gonna be fully in charge (You can see this video ☟, maybe from 20:45 if it's too long for you), so why you see Chabahar with a lot of suspicion?

The worry on the Pakistani side is that India will use investments in Chabahar as a cover from which its agents will penetrate through the porous Iran-Pakistan border into our side of Balochistan. Already we have captured one of their spies (https://tribune.com.pk/story/1072455/terror-purge-forces-nab-indian-spy-in-balochistan/), who claims to have been a simple businessman working in Chabahar.

The suspicion stems from India's usage of Afghan consulates close to the Pakistani border as bases from which their secret service agency RAW operates. One US intelligence officer speaking in anonymity in Afghanistan had this to say about Indian activity in the country

"While the U.S. media has frequently reported on Pakistani ties to jihadi elements launching attacks in Afghanistan, it has less often mentioned that India supports insurgent forces attacking Pakistan, the former intelligence official said. "The Indians are up to their necks in supporting the Taliban against the Pakistani government in Afghanistan and Pakistan," the former intelligence official who served in both countries said."
http://foreignpolicy.com/2009/02/16/can-the-intel-community-defuse-india-pakistan-tensions/

Chuck Hagel too in a video from a couple of years back is heard saying "India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan on that side of the border, and you can carry that into many dimensions.”
https://www.dawn.com/news/788984/india-finances-trouble-in-pakistan-hagel

The worry in Pakistan is hence that India will simply use the Sistan-Balochistan front to widen its terror campaign inside Pakistan, through legitimate "consulates" and "investments". Whilst I can appreciate that Iran is simply building a port which is open to all investors whether they be Chinese or Indian, you have to take into account that we are in a quasi state of war with India, and a heavy Indian presence that close to the border with Pakistan will probably be seen by the average Pakistani as Iran indirectly facilitating Indian activities in the region. Of course if Iran clamps down hard and makes it clear to India that such a purpose for Indian investments in the Sistan-Baluchistan region is not acceptable then Pakistanis will be fine with it, but the Kulbushan Yadav episode has gotten everyone worried. If such events reoccur then public opinion might push Pakistan increasingly towards the Saudi alliance, which individuals like myself are strongly against. As said I am for balancing our act in the Mideast, just like you guys aim in South Asia.