It was mid-2004 when I landed in Aden in
connection with signing of an oil contract for our oil company with Aden
refinery.
I met the CEO of the company over there
that probably looked like an Indian and after the meeting he confirmed me that
his forefathers like many Indians came here and settled here. Later on, he took
me to the town near the port which looked like as if I was in Layari or
Chakiwara. I found the Indo-Pak culture there.
My host added to my knowledge that the
most of the oil concessions in Yemen are done in their tribal areas under
Houthi control. These are the same tribes which are now fighting against the
Government and Saudi Arabia
The tribal culture on the mountains of
Yemen along the Saudi border looked to be the same as of FATA in our country. I
saw it during my visit that even the children had guns in their hands in tribal
areas of Yemen the way I used to see children with weapons in FATA as director
FIA for more than three years. They have almost the same eating habits and
their favourite food is meat like ours. Interestingly I found everyone in the
evening enjoyed their bite of “ghat- green leaves “like our most of the Tribesmen
enjoy the bite of “Naswar”.
I am privy to the fact that the operation
going on in FATA forced the Afro-Arab terrorists to move towards Yemen which
were duly supported by CIA.
In ancient times, Yemen was known as
Arabia Felix, Latin for “happy” or “fortunate”. Today, Yemen is neither happy
nor fortunate but it acquired the name because its high mountains attracted
rain, making it more fertile than most of the Arabian Peninsula. The history of
the Yemen stretches back over 3,000 years. From about 1000 BC this region of
the Southern Arabian Peninsula was ruled by three successive civilisations --
Minean, Sabaean (Shabean) and Himyarite.
Yemen is claimed to be the ancient
homeland of the Queen of Sheba (Balqis or Bilqis in Arabic). Her dealings with
Hazrat Suleman are mentioned in the Bible and the Qur’an. The Story of him
converting the Queen to Islam by influencing her through his deeds of morality
by not accepting bribe and being strict when it came to shirk and kufr, is
mentioned in Surah An-Naml of Quran. He later married her and let her rule
Yemen.
This historically rich country Yemen has
people mainly of Arab origin, many of which is Saudi nationals and is still a
largely tribal society. In the northern, mountainous parts of the country, there
are some 400 Zaidi tribes.
Even Osama bin Laden’s family lived in
Wadi Doan in southern Yemen before immigrating to Saudi Arabia. In the early
1990s, Muslim volunteers who had fought against Soviet troops in Afghanistan
moved to Yemen and the country has had a jihadist presence ever since.
There was a time when Yemen and Saudi
Arabia used to have close ties. It was the West, which didn’t like the idea of
friendly ties between them so it decided to destabilise Middle East especially
through Yemen.
The relationship between Saudi Arabia and
Yemen became tense when Abdullah Hassan al-Asiri; a member of al-Qaeda in the
Arabian Peninsula attempted to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Minister of
the Interior, Muhammad bin Nayef in 2009, in a suicide bombing. The attempt
however had failed as the prince was only slightly injured but the bomber had
died on the spot. The attack became the initial cause of wedge between the two
countries as this was the first assassination attempt against a royal family
member since 2003.
Yemen was ruled for a millennium by Zaydi
Shia imams until 1962, and the Houthis were founded as a Zaydi Shia revivalist
movement. However, the Houthis have not called for restoring the imamate.
Rather; their demands have been primarily economic and political in nature.
Houthi rebels are always seeking to over throw the Government as they did
before as well by executing their former President. They are willing to retain
control of Yemen as they do not want a Sunni to be the head of the State.
Currently a Civil war is going on in Yemen between the Government and Houthis
have now control much of northern Yemen, having taken over the capital Sanaa in
September 2014 and pushed the Hadi government into exile in November 2015.They
want total control over the Yemen as the globally-important Gulf of Aden and
the Suez Canal of Yemen sits on the narrow Bab el-Mandeb strait through which
much of the world’s oil shipments pass. This is why in 2015; Saudi Arabia
formed a coalition of Arab states to defeat the Houthis in Yemen. The coalition
now includes Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco,
Jordan, Sudan and Senegal. Several of these countries have sent troops to fight
on the ground in Yemen.
This tug of war is still continued
between Saudi and Yemen where Iran has become a party. The tension has been
growing rapidly and it clearly has become the replica of Afghan vs. Taliban war
like the situation in FATA.
Saudi Arabia suspects that Iran is
funding this Houthi movement and training these subversive activists to take
control of the long, porous border which it shares with Yemen. Due to this
on-going war, from March 2015 to December 2017, 8,670–13,600 people have been
killed in Yemen, including more than 5,200 civilians, as well as estimates of
more than 50,000 dead as a result of an ongoing famine due to the war.
Saudi Arabia has been dragged with an
agenda in this Yemen War whereas Iran is also tricked into it by using
religious card. USA has also jumped in the war leaving un-finished agenda in
Syria to protect its own economic agenda to have his share in oil and defense
sale but also simultaneously oblige Israel as Iran continues to threat Israel.
It has been decided by the leadership of
Middle East including Saudi Arabia to rehabilitate the displaced persons and
reconstruction of Yemen.
The Saudi backed President Abdullah Saleh
was killed by Houthis and now only a city in the radius of 32 kilometer is
under the control of the Yemeni Government, whereas the rest of the country is
with the rebels.
The reconstruction by a non-Muslim force
is not being accepted by the rebels. According to inside reports the rebels may
agree to have Pak Army to play its role in construction and rehabilitation of
the country.
I think it is right to say that Saudi
Arabia at present does not need Pak political or diplomatic support but rather
it has dire need of our unmatched abilities of Pakistan Army which was earlier
declined because of our internal unrest caused by terrorism.
I think this is high time that Pakistan
should fully support Saudi Arabia to counter their internal and external
threats. We should help our Saudi brothers unconditionally without anything in
return.
Middle East looks to be in continued
troubles because of Daesh and other pressing internal & external
developments after the murder of a Saudi Journalist Jamal Khashoggi. The
international pressure may increase more in coming weeks and is likely to add
to the problems of Saudi Arabia. If USA withdraws its forces from Saudi Arabia,
it will create huge unbalance of power in the region. In this emerging crisis
situation, only Pakistan can help in countering these internal and external
pressures and in the meantime Pakistan should play its role to bring Iran &
Saudi on the table to sort out their issues respectively. Pakistan must take
the leadership of UAE into confidence as one of the major player and supporter
of global peace.
In other words, Mr Prime Minister, I
suppose that it is not mediation which is required between Saudi Arabia &
Yemen but the military and political support of Pakistan to Saudi Arabia is
needed to resolve and to protect their interests. Moreover, it is our duty to
protect our holy places at any cost making it an opportunity for Pakistan to
create peace and harmony in Middle East. Pakistan can also make Iran realize
about the devastating effects of armed conflict between Iran and Middle East as
this is what I wanted President Nijad and the then Supreme leader of Iran to
understand when I acted as mediator.
I propose a debate on camera over this
issue and if Pakistan receives any such offer, let there be support for our
Saudi brothers. Let us not sell this support rather lend it as a token of
friendship towards Saudis the way they supported us in the past in our
difficult times.
The above views are personal and do not
necessarily represent my party’s policy.
The Article has been Published in ‘’The
Nation’’ on November 8th, 2018
The Link to Article is: https://nation.com.pk/08-Nov-2018/saudi-yemen-mediation-or-pak-military-support
No comments:
Post a Comment