Our foreign policy is often caught between the devil and the deep sea when it is dealing with Arab countries. Most of the time, the Arab world gets embroiled in regional and sectarian differences and their hard lines make it hard for our Foreign Office to keep a delicate and balanced line. Our dependence on the deferred payment oil supplies and a big chunk of remittances from the Gulf also impacts our stance on regional and international issues. This is not quite according to established principles of foreign policy. Pakistan needs to first watch its own interests before securing others’. Pakistan’s decision to attend a conference, convened by Malaysia on December 19-21, and to be attended by Qatar, Turkey, Iran and Indonesia, has raised many eyebrows in Jeddah because of Pakistan’s sharing the table with Saudi Arabia’s archrivals Qatar, Iran and Turkey. It is said Saudi Arabia sees the upcoming conference as an attempt to create a new bloc to challenge and replace the existing Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), which is mostly hosted and financed by Jeddah. The matter of fact is that the Kuala Lumper conference is economic in nature. The only political element it may discuss is how to fight Islamphobia. Another reality is that the OIC has been dysfunctional or toothless for years. Even on the recent developments in India-held Kashmir, OIC failed to convene a meeting or issue condemnation. No Arab countries stood by Pakistan. Instead, right after the revocation of the special status of India-held Kashmir, the Arab countries showered their highest awards and billion dollar deals on Modi, the butcher of over 1,000 Muslims in Gujarat in 2002. Pakistan took it a sign of independent foreign policies of Arab countries, and did not press them to change their stance. On the other hand, Malaysia, Turkey and Iran supported Pakistan’s stance and condemned human rights violations in the occupied valley. The other issue disturbing the princes of Saudi Arabia is Pakistan’s military exchanges with Iran. Saudi Arabia has shown its displeasure on Pakistan’s increasing ties with Iran, Qatar and Turkey. For these reasons, Prime Minister Khan has been to Saudi Arabia multiple times to address the reservations of the kingdom. Pakistan cannot afford to lose the support of Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries for their great financial help. They have stood by us in every difficult hour; in turn, Pakistan shows unequivocal support for the Arab allies at every international forum. The only thing which the Arab world needs to understand is that Pakistan’s foreign relation activities are for its self-interest. *