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Yemen conundrum
[DAWN] It has long been an unhappy feature of Pak foreign and national security policy that many of the more sensational revelations are left to foreigners to make. So it has been with this sudden and frenzied will-we/won't-we speculation that Pakistain will send troops and other military resources to the Middle East -- either to intervene inside Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... on the side of the Saudi-led coalition or help defend the Saudi border from a possible invasion by the Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews... rebels in Yemen. Bizarrely, it has been the Saudi news media -- hardly known for their independence, especially in matters of regional policy -- that has led with loud, insistent claims that Pakistain has agreed to make a military contribution to the Saudi-assembled coalition that has been aerially pounding the Houthis since last week and which may soon become a fully fledged land invasion. Here in Pakistain, the government has seemingly tried to downplay the issue, without giving any clear indication of what is being discussed and why. Why the gap between the thinly veiled official Saudi claims and the watered-down government statements here? Part of the reason could well be that the Saudi government, keen to have as broad a coalition as it can assemble in Yemen, is using public statements and media leaks to put pressure on Pakistain. In times of crisis -- and the Saudi monarchy appears to be either grimly determined or in a state of panic already -- it is to be expected that every bit of leverage, public and private, will be used to achieve the ends that the Saudis are looking for in Yemen. It could well be that private and very cautious Pak resistance to the idea of getting involved in Yemen, or even on Saudi soil, is being very publicly countered by the Saudi media campaign. However -- and this can never be discounted given the Pak leadership's penchant for secrecy -- it could also be that the Saudi cajoling is aimed at making Pakistain deliver on the far more extensive private reassurances it has already given to Riyadh in contrast to what the Pak leadership has publicly claimed. Posted by: Fred 2015-03-30 |
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