- Foreign secretary says Islamabad to reduce Riyadh-Tehran tension
Foreign Affairs Secretary Tehmina Janjua has said that it is difficult for Pakistan to maintain equal relations with Saudi Arabia and Iran but Islamabad will not go against Tehran’s interests.
During a meeting of the National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, she gave assurance that Pakistan remains committed to its policy of non-interference in the conflicts of Muslim countries. The meeting discussed the issue of clearance given to former army chief General Raheel Sharif to lead the Islamic military alliance and Pakistan’s relations with Saudi Arabia and Iran.
The former army chief is all set to take up the command of the military alliance during this month. It is pertinent to mention here that Defence Minister Khwaja Muhammad Asif had recently confirmed that the government had issued an NOC to the former army chief to lead the military alliance.
The foreign secretary said that Pakistan was making efforts to reduce the tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The Islamic military alliance was against terrorism and not any specific country, she said in response to a question by the committee. She asserted that Raheel Sharif would not act against Iran as head of the military alliance.
She confirmed that Oman was the 41st country to have become a member of the alliance. On Monday, Iranian Ambassador Mehdi Honardoost in its first official response on the Saudi-led military coalition expressed concerns over the appointment of General Raheel Sharif as the head of the military alliance.
He also expressed his country’s reservations on the issuance of NOC (no objection certificate) to General Raheel for his new assignment as head of the alliance. “Yes, it is correct that Pakistan had contacted Iranian officials before issuing the NOC, but it did not indicate that Iran is satisfied with this decision or it had accepted the same,” he said.
During the meeting, former foreign affairs minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi raised concerns that the Foreign Office’s (FO) statements regarding the Saudi military coalition were contradictory and said that Pakistan must make careful decisions regarding the Islamic alliance. He said a tilt towards either side in Pakistan’s ties with Saudi Arabia and Iran was not advisable.
The Foreign Office has avoided an immediate reaction to media statements by the Iranian ambassador. “Not now. We generally do not react to media reports. We’ll, however, look at it,” FO spokesman Nafees Zakaria said. Last week, the spokesman had dismissed the impression that Pakistan’s participation in the alliance would compromise its longstanding principle of neutrality in the Middle Eastern conflicts.
It was always expected that Iran being a Saudi adversary would not be comfortable with Riyadh’s move to set up such an alliance, though under the pretext of fighting the militant Islamic State group. Islamabad’s decision to send the former army chief to lead the alliance is therefore all set to complicate the already fraught Pak-Iran ties.
The military coalition, also tagged as Muslim NATO, is reportedly designed as a loose alliance of an undisputable majority of Muslim countries with no details available at hand. Some media speculations about the purpose and mechanism of the alliance has added to the controversy since the first time the news about the alliance came to the fore.
Initially, Pakistan had adopted a very cautious approach towards the alliance though the Saudi officials had claimed last year that Pakistan was a part of the alliance. It was only last week that the Foreign Office spokesperson officially confirmed the joining after the lapse of almost six months.
The decision to join the alliance is drawing a lot of criticism from some analysts, former diplomats, and opposition parties because they believe that such a move could create more problems for Pakistan on diplomatic front. Many critics believe that the alliance may be used to target the interests of Iran and Iraq governments which are not a part of the alliance.
