Monday, June 05, 2017

Will we be grateful to Pakistan after all?

In a surprise move Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain severed diplomatic relations with neighboring Arab state of Qatar, accusing it of providing support to Islamist militants and to Iran. Yemen, Libya and the Maldives joined later. We have to remember that Yemen means the eastern half of the country controlled by the Sunni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, while the western half, including the capital city of Sanaa, is controlled by the Houthis, a Shia group. Saudi Arabia has been relentlessly bombing Yemen for over 2 years because they suspect that the Houthis are a proxy force for Iran, much like the Hezbollah in Lebanon. Yemen is suffering a severe cholera epidemic. Not surprising that the Houthis promptly declared support for Qatar. Libya likewise is a divided country ever since Muammar Gaddafi's troops were illegally bombed by western powers and Gaddafi was eventually murdered. At the time Egypt and the UAE secretly bombed militants fighting Gaddafi, while Qatar joined the Nato forces against Gaddafi. Qatar has used its oil wealth by investing heavily in western countries while continuing with Islamist policies back home, inviting accusations of being two-faced. The same charge can leveled against the Saudis and the Egyptians. The Saudis have long used their money to build mosques and madrasas all over the world. The Saudis even offered to build 200 mosques, one for every 100 refugees arriving in Germany. The Saudi royal family has been supporting Islamists, as well as jihad against other religions. However, the collapse in the price of oil resulted in massive budget deficits and severely restricted their ability to finance jihad overseas. Attacks by Al Qaeda and Iran's nuclear ambition has frightened the kingdom. The previous king repeatedly requested the US to "cut off head of snake" but Obama signed a nuclear deal with Iran instead. Trump's recent visit and his condemnation of Iran has energized the Saudis. The Muslim Brotherhood, that Qatar is accused of supporting, rose in Egypt where the government accuses Al Azhar university of supporting the Brotherhood. The Maldives government is hanging on to power by suppressing all opposition and arresting people on fake charges. So which side to support, when every country is involved in dirty tricks and it is impossible to distinguish right from wrong. Even Bosnians, who are Muslims, do not want Arabs in there country. A war will definitely happen but who the main actors will be no one knows. Thankfully we have Pakistan between us and Iran, which may be the shield that protects us from the coming war. Who would have thought that?

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