The more one reads into the Middle East mud, the more one becomes puzzled by the strange developments taking place in the murky world of Arabs.
Violence in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen makes headlines every day.
The crisis of Qatar refuses to go away.
Saudi Arabia, we never know what new development is going to take place there tomorrow.
Now Lebanon has been dragged to the theater of absurdity.
Ohmygod, what is happening there and what is going to happen there?
Nowhere in the world has it ever happened that a prime minister abruptly flies to a neighboring country and announces resignation from the post on the host country’s national TV channel.
When Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri announced resignation last week on the grounds that his life was in danger in his own country, it shocked not only Lebanese politicians and his closet aides, governments all over the world were also short of words to express their reaction on the resignation.
Recovering from the shock and confusion, now the Lebanese government has started calling upon the Saudi Arabian government to explain why Saad Hariri is still in their country and what circumstances are preventing him to come back, or at least contact the Lebanon government.
The Saudi Arabian government has been acting strangely since the resignation move took place. It has allowed US, Britain, French and the European Union diplomats to meet Saad Hariri, but refused to allow the Lebanese diplomats and former French prime minister Nicolas Sarkozi to meet him, saying ‘it is Saudi Arabia’s internal matter’.
It is not.
It is a Lebanon matter.
As Lebanese President Michal Aun has called for the return of Saad Hariri, implying that he has rejected his resignation. Similarly, Lebanon Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri says that new prime minister will only be elected when Hariri officially confirms his resignation.
Saad Hariri blamed Iranian meddling in his country’s affairs, without naming Iranian-backed Hezbollah and its allies.
The Shia militia has accused Saudi Arabia of forcing Hariri to step down against his will and subsequently detaining him in the kingdom, only to destabilize the country.
The move, however, backfired as the Lebanese have united, putting up unity as the best defense in the times of uncertainties.
Until the botched resignation of Hariri, a deal installed between the Hezbollah and the Saudi-backed coalition was working well.
The Saudi Arabian meddling in first Syria, Yemen, Qatar, and now Lebanon at a time, when it is grappling with palace coups and subsequent mass arrests of royal people and other governmental people, heralds war times in the region. Saudi Arabia has asked its citizens to leave Lebanon. Sensing that the Hezbollah would soon return to Lebanon after flushing out Islamic State militants from Iraq and Syria, Saudi Arabia is opening a new war front to engage the Shia militia.
Kingdom’s crown prince Mohmmed Bin Salman has indicated unless Hezbollah stops fighting in Syria and Iraq, and Iran stops supporting Houthis fighters in Yemen, tensions will not slip down. The firebrand prince has the active support of the US and other Arab allies. Iran and Hezbollah remain undeterred, which shows that Lebanon is going to be another theatre of the clash between Saudi Arabia and Iran after Yemen and Syria.
What should Pakistan do in these times?
Nothing. We need to remain as neutral as Arabs and Iranians are to us. But conflicts see no neutrality as they, taking place in far off or close places, are likely to impact our internal and external horizons.
Pakistan, being a country of multi-sect populates, is likely to be dragged in the conflict whenever Iran and Saudi Arabia are the warring factions.
Pitty times.
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