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Pakistan has a record of successful, result-oriented mediation in many a crisis in the past and it would be worth the while if it takes up mediation in the current Gulf imbroglio in a democratic and humanitarian way.
The suggestion was made by former federal information minister and noted intellectual Javed Jabbar while addressing members of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA), the media, and the intellectual elite of the city, at the PIIA auditorium the other day. His lecture was titled, ‘The dynamics of Iran, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and US relations’.
He said that Pakistan’s position among Islamic states could be gauged from the fact that the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Conference) had thrown its weight behind Pakistan and unequivocally condemned Indian atrocities in India-Held Kashmir (IHK).
He said that the humanitarian mediation was essential as, God forbid, were there to be an armed confrontation there would have been a purposeless loss of human lives and overall destruction.
Analysing the situation in detail, he said that there were six monarchies with sharply contrasting political systems. There, he said, lay internal disparity. Kuwait, he said, was a state where certain sections of the people did not have the right to vote, while there was unemployment in Bahrain.
Most of the states, of late had begun to grapple with the crisis of inadequate housing. There were curbs on political activity, and 88 percent of the UAE’s combined GDP hinged on just around two fiefdoms, Jabbar added.
He was sceptical of regional pacts and quoted the example of Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation). He said that India was the biggest member of Saarc and thus, there was lack of equality which hindered smooth running of the pact.
Similarly, he said, Saudi Arabia was the disproportionately largest member of the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council). He did, however, acknowledge that Saarc had done some good work too.
Besides, he said that the concept of unipolarity was misleading; it was more of an illusion. In this context, he cited the example of the USA and said that while all this talk of the US being the sole superpower had been going on, it could still not achieve a decisive victory in Afghanistan. They had been more or less bogged down. “This goes to show how diffused power actually is”, he said.
“Disproportionate distribution of resources causes instability,” he said, adding, that such a crisis also engulfs non-regional powers. The present crisis which started around June 5, involves just not the Gulf but Africa, Asia, and Europe too.
Talking about the economic prosperity of the GCC countries, he said that a fifth of the world’s oil came from these countries as did a fifth of the world’s crude oil and gas. In reply to a question, he said that while the discovery of large quantities of shale oil in the US could certainly act as a bargaining chip in the pricing mechanism, it, for the foreseeable future could not affect the demand for these commodities.
He said that it was for the big powers to see an end to this imbroglio as Qatar was the largest investor in the US and the UK. Jabbar also pointed out the recent presentation of Saudi Arabia’s highest civil award to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. As for Iran, he said that Iran had displayed incredible maturity during the whole crisis.
What made the function more or less unusual was the presence of high-ranking officers of the Pakistan Air Force. One of them put forth a very apt query. He asked whether the present crisis was just a ploy crafted by the US and Saudi Arabia to isolate Iran
Towards the end, Jabbar said, “I don’t find anyway whereby there would be an outright invasion of Qatar”. He further said, “History teaches us that religion has never been known to be a driver behind the formation of geo-strategic alliances.”
https://www.thenews.com.pk/print/216599-Pakistans-mediation-in-Gulf-crisis-can-prove-fruitful
