Monday, April 06, 2015

Pakistan and the Saudi war on Yemen

From a friend and a well-known colleague in Yemen:

"Please don't mention my name dear As'ad but I thought I should share this with you:

Although the joint session of the Pakistani Parliament will discuss and decide how to respond to the Saudi request for sending Pakistani bomber jets and troops to Yemen to join the "Gulf coalition of the willing," Pakistan's most popular private TV channel tonight (5 April) invited in its show "Capital Talk" representatives of all the major political parties to explain their positions. There was an unprecedented consensus among ALL the political parties' spokespersons that: (a) Pakistan should act as a mediator and not as a party to the conflict; (b) Pakistan should remain neutral in the current conflict in Yemen; (c) Pakistan should not commit its troops unless there is a tangible threat to the sanctity of the two holy mosques.

The Saudi embassy in Islamabad is desperately trying to mobilize the Salafi and Deobandi ulama to rally around their position in Yemen and even trying to put together a delegation of ulama to visit Riyadh and pledge their support for the Saudi action in Yemen. "