March 16, 2015

Could This Be One Reason Why Pakistan Rejected Saudi Arabia's Troops Request?

Pakistan gave Saudi Arabia the cold shoulder. 

An excerpt from, "Pakistan declines to join Saudi Arabia's anti-Iran alliance" by Bruce Riedel, Al Monitor, March 15, 2015:
Salman specifically wanted a Pakistani military contingent to deploy to the kingdom to help defend the vulnerable southwest border with Zaydi Houthi-controlled north Yemen and serve as a trip-wire force to deter Iranian aggression. There is precedent for a Pakistani army expeditionary force in Saudi Arabia. After the Iranian Revolution, Pakistani dictator Mohammad Zia ul-Haq deployed an elite Pakistani armored brigade to the kingdom at King Fahd's request to deter any threats to the country. In all, some 40,000 Pakistanis served in the brigade over most of a decade. Today only some Pakistani advisers and experts serve in the kingdom. 
According to Pakistani sources, Sharif has reluctantly decided not to send troops to Saudi Arabia for now. Sharif promised closer counterterrorism and military cooperation but no troops for the immediate future. Pakistan also declined to move its embassy in Yemen from Sanaa to Aden as the Saudis and the Gulf Cooperation Council states have done to distance themselves from the Houthis. 
The Pakistanis are arguing their military is already overstretched facing the traditional enemy, India, and the increasing threat from the Pakistani Taliban. Pakistan has its own serious sectarian tensions and violence. About 20% of Pakistanis are Shiite and sectarian violence has been intensifying in recent years. Groups linked to al-Qaeda such as Lashkar-e-Jhangvi have targeted Shiite mosques and schools for suicide bombings. Iran also has proxies in Pakistan that have attacked Sunni targets in the past. Faced with these difficulties at home, Sharif is telling Salman not now for troops.
Quote from the video below by Indian journalist M.J. Akbar:
"This strategic partnership [Saudi Arabia-Pakistan] for the first time has cracked under the pressure of the Fourth World War, which is the war on terror, because Saudis have handed over one of the principals accused of the Mumbai terrorist attack. A chap who worked with Lashkar-e-Taiba, which is Hafiz Saeed's, who was in the control room directing. Abu Jundal, his name is. He defected from India and went there.  
And he has been handed over by the Saudis. It has shocked what might we call the underclass of terrorism because they had assumed in their minds that there would be safe sanctuary in Saudi. And Saudis knew that handing him over to India is going to blow apart the Pakistan defence that they had no involvement because this chap is singing like all the birds of Vancouver put together. He's providing evidence of ISI involvement. It's all there. 
It is not that the Saudi-Pakistan relation is going to collapse. Not at all. They will remain the most important allies for each other. But even the Saudis are telling Pakistan 'enough.' But Washington can't find the ability to say so. Ottawa can't find the ability to say so, which puzzles me deeply. I don't get emotional about these things, but it does puzzle me because where is your understanding of your self-interest?" [1:34 - 3:24].
Title: Saudi Arabia prefers India over Pakistan. Source: Young Guns of India. Date Published: December 1, 2014. Description:
In an astonishing shift in foreign policy of Saudi Arabia, it handed over terrorists to India rather than Pakistan. This was a huge blow for them. Even Saudi Arabia is fed up of Pakistan.