Sunday, March 22, 2015

Pakistan Will Not Join Saudi Arabia's Anti-Iran Alliance

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who recently visited Saudi Arabia, appears to be thinking hard as he holds his glasses at the closing session of the 18th South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit in Katmandu, Nepal, Nov. 27, 2014. (photo by REUTERS/Niranjan Shrestha)

Bruce Riedel, Al-Monitor: Pakistan declines to join Saudi Arabia's anti-Iran alliance

Saudi Arabia's campaign to build a broad Sunni alliance to contain Iran has apparently suffered at least a setback from Pakistan. Islamabad has opted, at least for now, to avoid becoming entangled in the sectarian cold war between Riyadh and Tehran.

Earlier this month, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was invited to the kingdom for urgent talks with King Salman bin Abdul-Aziz Al Saud and his advisers. The king met Sharif at the airport to underscore the importance of the talks. The main topic was Iranian aggression in the Arab world and the impending deadline for the P5+1 negotiations on Iran's nuclear project. The king wanted firm assurances from Sharif that Pakistan would align itself with Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies against Iran, especially in the proxy war now underway in Yemen.


WNU Editor: There are also many who are hoping that Pakistan will also not sell and/or share it's nuclear bomb secrets to Saudi Arabia .... Pakistan Will Not Give Saudi Arabia The Bomb (Muhammad Umar, Eurasia Review).

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