Shapur Zol Aktaf
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Yemen's Hadi will not return to Aden 'for now': FM
Operation 'Decisive Storm' | Saudi lead coalition operations in Yemen - Updates & Discussions.
- Thread starter Kompromat
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Why Pakistan may be a reluctant ally in Saudis' Yemen campaign
March 27, 20159:22AM ET
Saudi Arabia’s new policy of uniting Sunni Muslim powers against Iran’s Shia regime has resulted in an impressively broad coalition joining its military campaign against Yemen’s pro-Tehran Houthi rebels.
Along with five Gulf countries, and the poorer monarchies of Jordan and Morocco, it also enlisted the support of its Egyptian strongman ally, general-turned-president Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Even plucky Sudan has dispatched three fighter jets.
Differences over issues such as the Muslim Brotherhood were suppressed in the interests of building a broad anti-Iran coalition that extended beyond the Arab world. Turkey announced on Thursday that it supports the Saudi-led offensive, with President Recep Tayyep Erdogan issuing a spirited harangue that branded Iran’s actions a source of “annoyance.”
But perhaps the biggest surprise has been the reported inclusion of Pakistan. Al-Arabiya, the Saudi-owned broadcaster, said Islamabad was providing military support. The habitually evasive Pakistani Foreign Office said simply that they were mulling a Saudi request for troops, while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed Thursday to retaliate against any threat to Saudi Arabia’s "integrity."
A senior member of Sharif’s cabinet told Al Jazeera that Pakistan will not be involved in any action “in Yemen” itself but will provide support to the Saudis on their own soil “if they are threatened.” On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported Pakistani and Saudi forces were carrying out a joint exercise near the Yemeni border, and quoted a U.S. official as saying the move was designed to serve as a warning to the Houthi rebels.
Unlike the Turks, who are incensed by Tehran’s involvement in propping up the regime of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Pakistan has no active dispute with Iran. The Saudis and Turks have made common cause in Syria and now Yemen despite backing rival factions in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Pakistan, by contrast, has remained distant from the Syrian conflict, facing a compelling threat at home. Since the December massacre of Peshawar schoolchildren, it has renewed its resolve to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban — a notoriously sectarian organization that has terrorized Pakistan’s Shia population, the largest outside Iran. Around one in five Pakistanis is Shia, as was the country’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
Still, it now finds itself drawn into a geopolitical alliance with a strongly sectarian pallor.
This isn’t first time Pakistan has been dragged into the poisonous Saudi-Iranian rivalry. After the 1979 revolution that brought the Ayatollahs to power, Pakistan became a battlefield in a proxy war between the two countries. The Iranians established armed Shia groups in Pakistan; the Saudis countered by sponsoring anti-Shia groups — a tradition that continues to this day, with millions of dollars funneled from the desert kingdom into thousands of Pakistani madrassas teaching extreme ideas.
For the Saudis, the appeal of Pakistan is obvious. It shares a border with Iran and, crucially, already has nuclear weapons. The Saudis want Pakistan to act as a counterweight to Iran, and have long cultivated a close relationship with its military. Since the late 1960s, Pakistani soldiers have been permanently garrisoned in Saudi Arabia. In 1969, Pakistani pilots slipped into Saudi jets to carry out sorties in South Yemen against a rebel threat at the time.
For Pakistan, Saudi Arabia is not only a long-standing source of aid but a principal source of foreign exchange through much-needed remittances. Just last month, for example, $453 million flowed into Pakistan from the exertions of more than 1.5 million often poorly treated migrant workers. The intimacy of the two countries’ ruling elites notwithstanding, the migrant workers are weighed down by debts they owe to exploitative recruiters. Pakistanis are also disproportionately found in Saudi Arabia’s jails and on death row.
The relationship, however, is one-sided. “We in Saudi Arabia are not observers in Pakistan, we are participants,” Saudi Arabia’s current ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, boasted in 2007, according to a leaked State Department cable. Its clout extends to the realm of politics, where the Saudis have keenly backed military rulers and right-wing politicians — Prime Minister Sharif lived in exile in Jeddah after the Kingdom persuaded then dictator Pervez Musharraf to release him from prison.
As Prince Waleed ibn Talal once told to the Wall Street Journal, “Nawaz Sharif, specifically, is very much Saudi Arabia’s man in Pakistan.” The Saudis last year injected $1.5 billion into Pakistan’s treasury, boosting its liquidity at moment when it is still strapped to an exacting IMF loan package.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party is seen within Pakistan to favor Sunnis, and as having ties with sectarian groups. It has few Shia parliamentarians and few Shia voters.
Pakistan’s army, however, has never had a sectarian reputation. It has included many Shia generals, although their numbers have thinned over the years. Some of the worst victims of the Pakistani Taliban’s savagery were Shia soldiers, who were murdered in captivity. Becoming an overtly Sunni army would compromise the Pakistan military’s proud claim of being a force of cohesion for the country, and risk alienating many Shia Pakistanis, at a time when there is a clamor for unity against the Taliban at home.
This may also be a bad time for Pakistan to pick a fight with Iran. In recent years, relations between the neighbors have veered between periods of economic cooperation and cross-border tensions, particularly over Sunni armed groups targeting the Iranian regime from Pakistani territory in Balochistan.
But as it battles the Pakistani Taliban along the Afghan border, Islamabad is trying to facilitate a postwar settlement across the border by bringing to bear its considerable influence over the Afghan Taliban. Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, has developed closer relations with the Pakistani leadership than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, had ever managed to achieve. But any eventual settlement in Afghanistan will inevitably involve Iran, whose influence in the country was such that even the U.S. sought Tehran’s cooperation during and after its 2001 invasion to topple the Taliban.
Being drawn into the Middle East’s sectarian battles, then, carries greater domestic and regional risk for Pakistan than it does for most of the Saudis’ other partners.
Pakistan a Reluctant Ally in Saudi Yemen Campaign | Al Jazeera America
March 27, 20159:22AM ET
Saudi Arabia’s new policy of uniting Sunni Muslim powers against Iran’s Shia regime has resulted in an impressively broad coalition joining its military campaign against Yemen’s pro-Tehran Houthi rebels.
Along with five Gulf countries, and the poorer monarchies of Jordan and Morocco, it also enlisted the support of its Egyptian strongman ally, general-turned-president Abdel Fattah El Sisi. Even plucky Sudan has dispatched three fighter jets.
Differences over issues such as the Muslim Brotherhood were suppressed in the interests of building a broad anti-Iran coalition that extended beyond the Arab world. Turkey announced on Thursday that it supports the Saudi-led offensive, with President Recep Tayyep Erdogan issuing a spirited harangue that branded Iran’s actions a source of “annoyance.”
But perhaps the biggest surprise has been the reported inclusion of Pakistan. Al-Arabiya, the Saudi-owned broadcaster, said Islamabad was providing military support. The habitually evasive Pakistani Foreign Office said simply that they were mulling a Saudi request for troops, while Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed Thursday to retaliate against any threat to Saudi Arabia’s "integrity."
A senior member of Sharif’s cabinet told Al Jazeera that Pakistan will not be involved in any action “in Yemen” itself but will provide support to the Saudis on their own soil “if they are threatened.” On Wednesday, the Wall Street Journal reported Pakistani and Saudi forces were carrying out a joint exercise near the Yemeni border, and quoted a U.S. official as saying the move was designed to serve as a warning to the Houthi rebels.
Unlike the Turks, who are incensed by Tehran’s involvement in propping up the regime of Syria’s President Bashar al-Assad, Pakistan has no active dispute with Iran. The Saudis and Turks have made common cause in Syria and now Yemen despite backing rival factions in Tunisia, Libya and Egypt.
Pakistan, by contrast, has remained distant from the Syrian conflict, facing a compelling threat at home. Since the December massacre of Peshawar schoolchildren, it has renewed its resolve to eliminate the Pakistani Taliban — a notoriously sectarian organization that has terrorized Pakistan’s Shia population, the largest outside Iran. Around one in five Pakistanis is Shia, as was the country’s founder, Mohammed Ali Jinnah.
Still, it now finds itself drawn into a geopolitical alliance with a strongly sectarian pallor.
This isn’t first time Pakistan has been dragged into the poisonous Saudi-Iranian rivalry. After the 1979 revolution that brought the Ayatollahs to power, Pakistan became a battlefield in a proxy war between the two countries. The Iranians established armed Shia groups in Pakistan; the Saudis countered by sponsoring anti-Shia groups — a tradition that continues to this day, with millions of dollars funneled from the desert kingdom into thousands of Pakistani madrassas teaching extreme ideas.
For the Saudis, the appeal of Pakistan is obvious. It shares a border with Iran and, crucially, already has nuclear weapons. The Saudis want Pakistan to act as a counterweight to Iran, and have long cultivated a close relationship with its military. Since the late 1960s, Pakistani soldiers have been permanently garrisoned in Saudi Arabia. In 1969, Pakistani pilots slipped into Saudi jets to carry out sorties in South Yemen against a rebel threat at the time.
For Pakistan, Saudi Arabia is not only a long-standing source of aid but a principal source of foreign exchange through much-needed remittances. Just last month, for example, $453 million flowed into Pakistan from the exertions of more than 1.5 million often poorly treated migrant workers. The intimacy of the two countries’ ruling elites notwithstanding, the migrant workers are weighed down by debts they owe to exploitative recruiters. Pakistanis are also disproportionately found in Saudi Arabia’s jails and on death row.
The relationship, however, is one-sided. “We in Saudi Arabia are not observers in Pakistan, we are participants,” Saudi Arabia’s current ambassador in Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, boasted in 2007, according to a leaked State Department cable. Its clout extends to the realm of politics, where the Saudis have keenly backed military rulers and right-wing politicians — Prime Minister Sharif lived in exile in Jeddah after the Kingdom persuaded then dictator Pervez Musharraf to release him from prison.
As Prince Waleed ibn Talal once told to the Wall Street Journal, “Nawaz Sharif, specifically, is very much Saudi Arabia’s man in Pakistan.” The Saudis last year injected $1.5 billion into Pakistan’s treasury, boosting its liquidity at moment when it is still strapped to an exacting IMF loan package.
Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz party is seen within Pakistan to favor Sunnis, and as having ties with sectarian groups. It has few Shia parliamentarians and few Shia voters.
Pakistan’s army, however, has never had a sectarian reputation. It has included many Shia generals, although their numbers have thinned over the years. Some of the worst victims of the Pakistani Taliban’s savagery were Shia soldiers, who were murdered in captivity. Becoming an overtly Sunni army would compromise the Pakistan military’s proud claim of being a force of cohesion for the country, and risk alienating many Shia Pakistanis, at a time when there is a clamor for unity against the Taliban at home.
This may also be a bad time for Pakistan to pick a fight with Iran. In recent years, relations between the neighbors have veered between periods of economic cooperation and cross-border tensions, particularly over Sunni armed groups targeting the Iranian regime from Pakistani territory in Balochistan.
But as it battles the Pakistani Taliban along the Afghan border, Islamabad is trying to facilitate a postwar settlement across the border by bringing to bear its considerable influence over the Afghan Taliban. Ashraf Ghani, the Afghan president, has developed closer relations with the Pakistani leadership than his predecessor, Hamid Karzai, had ever managed to achieve. But any eventual settlement in Afghanistan will inevitably involve Iran, whose influence in the country was such that even the U.S. sought Tehran’s cooperation during and after its 2001 invasion to topple the Taliban.
Being drawn into the Middle East’s sectarian battles, then, carries greater domestic and regional risk for Pakistan than it does for most of the Saudis’ other partners.
Pakistan a Reluctant Ally in Saudi Yemen Campaign | Al Jazeera America
I don't personally like this alsissi guy. also before shouting long live arab nation please be aware that Pakistanis, turks all central asia and far east asia and quiet a lot of Africa is not arab and immediately loose all interest if you make it about arab superiority.
I also want to say that conquest of Persia and eastern roman empire was done by an army which was muslim, and would and did never take any pride of being arab....
arab armies before islam were ...kind of pathetic...
I also want to say that conquest of Persia and eastern roman empire was done by an army which was muslim, and would and did never take any pride of being arab....
arab armies before islam were ...kind of pathetic...
Serpentine
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Rest of your post is nonsense. but this part was the most stupid one. Ok how many did they kill? Provide your sources that they 'shot at thousands of protesters'. If they wanted to kill people, there'd be a massacre by now.
Aren't you the same guy who was saying a month ago that Houthis are a fully Yemeni people and have nothing to do with Iran and Shias? Aren't you the same one who said they are not terrorists? So they suddenly turned into terrorists after the Saudi aggression? Can't we call that instability and lack of consistency in opinions?
PS: Speaking of shooting at protesters, didn't you dear Al-Sisi kill a thousand people in 2 days? Of course you don't remember that, because Iran is bad and Arabs are good.
Saif al-Arab
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@VelocuR
Pakistan is already part of the coalition although their role is small. Mainly limited to naval blockades. Did you read what was posted? Pakistan will stand behind KSA if anyone dares to attack KSA. So will 95% of the Muslim world.
The coalition is almost entirely an Arab coalition and is likely to remain as such.
None of what I have written is nonsense. I solely operate on facts.
Yes, Houthi's are mainly Yemenis (they also use Shia volunteers from abroad) and yes I have always said that Iran's role is extremely overrated. Yet I have always considered them to be a terrorist cult that does not speak for the Zaydis of Yemen who make up between 33,3-40% of Yemen's population.
I described the correct situation on the ground in Yemen in a previous post in this very thread.
Pakistan is already part of the coalition although their role is small. Mainly limited to naval blockades. Did you read what was posted? Pakistan will stand behind KSA if anyone dares to attack KSA. So will 95% of the Muslim world.
The coalition is almost entirely an Arab coalition and is likely to remain as such.
None of what I have written is nonsense. I solely operate on facts.
Yes, Houthi's are mainly Yemenis (they also use Shia volunteers from abroad) and yes I have always said that Iran's role is extremely overrated. Yet I have always considered them to be a terrorist cult that does not speak for the Zaydis of Yemen who make up between 33,3-40% of Yemen's population.
I described the correct situation on the ground in Yemen in a previous post in this very thread.
HttpError
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That is why we should distance our self from Middle east affairs nothing in common with them.
Saif al-Arab
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@Serpentine
Here is the post that describes the situation on the ground as it is. Note, I criticize KSA past policy vis-a-vis Yemen when Saleh was ruling. Most of you foreigners don't understand/know Yemen enough or what is going on.
I do admire your constant interest in the Arab world. You should really marry an Iranian Arab. Are you sure that you are not partial Arab at least?
Here is the post that describes the situation on the ground as it is. Note, I criticize KSA past policy vis-a-vis Yemen when Saleh was ruling. Most of you foreigners don't understand/know Yemen enough or what is going on.
The problem is not incompetence or power for that matter but the lack of a coherent strategy. As I wrote then Yemen is a divided country politically and geographically. In the South of Yemen you have communists (South Yemen was one of the few communist states in the Muslim world), Islamists, Southern separatists, AQAP elements, tribal elements, tribes loyal to Hadi etc. Yet all of them are against the Houthi's but what is yet to be seen is whether they can put their differences aside and work together to push the Houthi's back to their strongholds in Northern Yemen, mainly the Saada province. Yemenis are very territorial people and no Southerner for instance would tolerate Northerners (Houthi's) to invade their cities and tell them what to do. Similar to Afghanistan actually.
At the same time in Northern Yemen you have divisions. Anyone that is not an extremist Zaydi is against Houthi's at the end of the day and those who are not are simply tired of the mess that Yemen has been for a long time and want to start from a fresh. Some of them are so gullible that they believe that highly incompetent people like the Houthi's can change everything.
Then as @Decisive Storm and @Gasoline correctly wrote you have the Saleh gang. We are talking about a man that ruled Yemen for over 30 years. He still has many loyalists in the army. An army he built for himself rather than for the country. An army more loyal to him than Yemen. The same Saleh and his gang were fighting against the Houthi's in 2009 and 2010 ALONGSIDE KSA.
Now it's true that KSA should have dealt with all this differently already when Saleh was ruling (who at times was close to KSA and at other in conflict) but Yemen is to KSA what Afghanistan is to Pakistan. It's more trouble and a headache than anything.
I hope that was explanation enough.
You are welcome. Maybe in a thread with less trolling and where the emotions are not running as high. I agree with your post.
Dear brother @Gasoline (I cannot quote your post as it contains links which I am still not allowed to post for some reason).
PressTV, Fars News Agency, Al-Alam and all of those other Farsi Mullah propaganda channels should really merge into 1 big channel and call themselves FARCETV. That would be more fitting considering the bullshit that they are "reporting" 24/7.
Nice MJ avatar.
I do admire your constant interest in the Arab world. You should really marry an Iranian Arab. Are you sure that you are not partial Arab at least?
Serpentine
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And who are you to say they don't represent Zaidis? Have you counted their votes? And if Iran's role is overrated, why almost all Arabs have been singing 'victory songs' for 'defeating Iran' over bombing the poorest Arab country in the world? Isn't that inferiority complex or what? That's funny, you bomb a fellow Arab country which is already too poor and you claim you are defeating Iran as if you have conquered Tehran.
Let me repeat my PS in last post: Speaking of shooting at protesters, didn't your dear Al-Sisi kill a thousand people in 2 days? Of course you don't remember that, because Iran is bad and Arabs are good.
arabs should stop thinking of and projecting arab nationalism. if they continue to do that than be aware Pakistan has more in common with Persians than arabs and so do turks.
also please check arab army record before islam and donot confuse Islamic military record with arab military recor
also please check arab army record before islam and donot confuse Islamic military record with arab military recor
Saif al-Arab
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And who are you to say they don't represent Zaidis? Have you counted their votes? And ifIran's roles is overrated, why almost all Arabs have been singing 'victory songs' for 'defeating Iran' over bombing of poorest Arab country in the world? Isn't that inferiority complex or what?
Let me repeat my PS in last post: Speaking of shooting at protesters, didn't you dear Al-Sisi kill a thousand people in 2 days? Of course you don't remember that, because Iran is bad and Arabs are good.
Because if they truly had the support of the Zaydi's they would have ruled Northern Yemen a long time ago as Northern Yemen is majority Zaydi Muslim. They have existed for over 20 years in case that you do not know and have always been a marginalized terrorist group/religious cult/organization (call it what you want).
Read the post I quoted (my own) in post 1352. Everything is explained there.
What are you talking about? Nobody sings about anything involving Iran. We are helping Yemen and the legitimate Yemeni government and people as Arabs. Where does Iran come into the picture? Only in your mind.
Yemen is not the poorest Arab country.
Since when is Al-Sisi "my dear". I don't support the killing of any civilian protestors. But since when is any MENA country a democracy? Did your beloved Mullah's not kill dozens of Iranian protestors in 2009 and did they not hang up to 10.000 political prisoners in 1988? Quit telling me that you supported the MB.
I don't care about any movement in the Arab world which you fail to understand. I care about the Arab world and the Arab people. I would support Egypt regardless of who rules it because I am able to distinguish between a few rulers and a few influential people (regardless who they are and which ideology they have) and the people.
You (Iranians) on the other hand do not care about Arabs or the Arab world. All you care abut is your few destructive proxies in the Arab world and their supporters. That's the harsh reality.
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Madali
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Why is he even excited that a western country might have defeated an eastern nation thousands of years ago? Even if the above was true, then I'd expect a Greek to boast about it...not someone from our region.
I'd love to be proud of nations in the region standing against western influence, but we live in an upside-down world, where this coalition all have American bases in their countries, yet they are high fiving each other because they are bombing Yemen! Pakistan doesn't care when USA has drone attacks in their country, apparently, but if Saudis ask them to attack Yemen, then it's FOR THE GOOD OF THE UMMAH. Palestinians here don't mind that Saudis & friends don't help them because apparently Israel is too strong. Egyptians are thrilled with this adventure, because they don't seem to care that they gave so many lives to topple Mubarak, but then the result of all that bloodshed lasted for a bit until a coup, supported by Saudi, brought in Sisi, going back to Mubarak days, but that's okay, because they are kicking *** in Yemen now!
The west is pissing all over the muslim's faces, but they keep getting you guys distracted by constantly going, 'Look there! Look there! It's the EVIL PERSIANS!!". This is world where Turkey has the nerve to talk about defending Muslims, when they are comfortably part of NATO.
Iran isn't scared of strong neighbors. Iran would if all its neighbors were independent, if they kicked out all the America soldiers from the middle east, closed all the US bases, if there wasn't an american navy ship in the gulf, no more situations where they would use middle eastern lands to fly their plans to attack other nations...but as long as the west distracts you guys, that will never happen.
@Saif al-Arab
I hope Pakistan will reject Arabs and no longer support on Arabs' many problems and depression, they have to deal themselves.
Our country will focus on their home first to rebuild everything and will become great King Caesar to control Arab and Iran world and likely divide them based on interests if Arabs countries and Iran doesn't calm down.
Pakistan should wait longer!
I hope Pakistan will reject Arabs and no longer support on Arabs' many problems and depression, they have to deal themselves.
Our country will focus on their home first to rebuild everything and will become great King Caesar to control Arab and Iran world and likely divide them based on interests if Arabs countries and Iran doesn't calm down.
Pakistan should wait longer!
5th Star
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Interesting Situation there in Yemen...
I got a couple of questions here for ALL you guys from the region.... Hopefully I ll get the answers.
1) So we have witnessed a robust air campaign in Yemen, how is the prospect for a ground invasion ? Shall we see Saudi Army entering Yemen from North (Sadaa Houthi strong hold mainly) and amphibious assault by Egyptian ground units?
2) If we are to see a ground invasion by the Gulf Arab Alliance, how do we see the divided Yemeni society responding?
and most importantly...
3) Will President Hadi be able to come back to Sanaa and re-establish his authority back again as a President?
Thank You.
@Saif al-Arab
I got a couple of questions here for ALL you guys from the region.... Hopefully I ll get the answers.
1) So we have witnessed a robust air campaign in Yemen, how is the prospect for a ground invasion ? Shall we see Saudi Army entering Yemen from North (Sadaa Houthi strong hold mainly) and amphibious assault by Egyptian ground units?
2) If we are to see a ground invasion by the Gulf Arab Alliance, how do we see the divided Yemeni society responding?
and most importantly...
3) Will President Hadi be able to come back to Sanaa and re-establish his authority back again as a President?
Thank You.
@Saif al-Arab
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Shapur Zol Aktaf
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