Daily Times

I hold people who can figure out the politics of the Middle East in the highest regard. It is one of the most bizarre, mysterious and volatile regions. It is often in a state of chaos and, quite frankly, involved in some fruitless conflicts between quarrelling neighbours. I have very limited knowledge and understanding of this very dangerous region. I call it the tinderbox because it is ready to ignite and blow up at any given moment. The confusion about this region for a common person like me stems from the complicated loyalties and affiliations of the various parties entrenched therein. Of course, the common gripe that we hear from our brethren is that the world’s powers are ‘conspiring’ to weaken the Muslim world by creating conflict. I respectfully disagree with that particular carte blanche assertion. The fact of the matter is that our not so glorious history, after the passing of the Prophet (PBUH), is a convincing testament that we the Muslims are our own worst enemies. Our history is full of blood, gore and violence, enough to shock any believer. In the dark chapters of our history, we see that the lust for power and wealth misguided our fellow brethren to the extent that they deviated completely from the basic and foremost tenet of our faith.
The recent developments in the Middle East involving Yemen and Saudi Arabia are quite alarming. Once again, the ‘evil, conspiring and wicked world powers’ are supposedly at play. The idea is to pit two countries against each other. Just shed Muslim blood and you will get the picture. Then there are murmurs of the conflict between the two giants of the Middle East, Iran and Saudi Arabia, being played out in Yemen. Iran is trying to get some of the sanctions against its nuclear programme lifted through negotiations, which are not getting much traction and are perhaps at the verge of being stalled. Israel, led by Prime Minister Netanyahu, is taking an aggressive stance against Iran because it feels that a nuclear-armed Iran is a direct threat to the stability of a Jewish state, never mind that Iran is no longer led by the aggressive Ahmadinejad. The Israeli prime minister has been lobbying and trying his best to ratchet up the pressure with his sharp and, at times, baseless rhetoric.
To give you the flavour of the region, let us add the deterioration of Iraq and Syria at the hands of the militant group, Islamic State (IS), to this discussion. The group’s brutality is beyond any comprehension. It seems like a sectarian conflict on the surface but it has gotten out of control. Although the media here claims that IS is losing some important strongholds in Iraq, it is still too early to tell. The picture does not look pretty, no matter which angle or position one views it from. In the midst of the aforementioned developments, the Saudis have started to put pressure on Pakistan to provide logistical support and troops for its offensive in Yemen. The current PML-N government, which is greatly influenced by the Saudis, finds itself in a quandary. As usual, the buzz of an All Parties Conference (APC) is in the air, as if any of those APCs in the past have been of any help.
Not forgetting Bush’s Operation Desert Storm in Iraq against Saddam, we now see the Saudis pitching an Operation Decisive Storm against the Houthis of Yemen to their fraternal nation of Al Bakistan. A leading English daily wrote: “While the country’s civil and military leadership agreed to extend all possible support to Riyadh to protect its sovereignty and territorial integrity, there is no decision yet whether Pakistan will join the Saudi-led military alliance.” A very simple question pops into my not very bright mind: How does Pakistan intend to provide “all possible support” to one of its major benefactors without putting boots on the ground?
At the onset, the opposition did raise some hue and cry but it seems that, eventually, there will be some consultation to look busy before the yay vote makes the news. Troops will be provided to our ally and life will go on. This raises a few very simple yet important questions. What will the nature and objectives of the mission be? It is safe to say that no one knows as we all watch these events unfold. In my humble and undiplomatic opinion, the tinderbox is ready for the proverbial match stick. This may be the ignition that it was waiting for. What happens next is anyone’s wild guess.

The writer is a Pakistani-American mortgage banker. He blogs at http://dasghar.blogspot.com and can be reached at dasghar@aol.com. He tweets at http://twitter.com/dasghar