Wolves in the sacred land

US President Trump proclaimed his exceptional achievement in uniting the Arab Sheikhdoms with Israel on “shared concerns” about Iran. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu was also quick to acknowledge the development as “promising” and said that “common threats have turned former enemies (most Arabs) into allies”. This is the outcome of the dance of the wolves in the sacred land. We should have kept out of this since we can neither be neutral nor play the role of mediator.

The summit meeting between the US and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) led by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) resolved to isolate and target Iran as the harbinger of terrorism while putting the Palestinian issue on the backburner and diverting the focus from fighting the predominantly Wahabi/Takfeeri terrorism to Shia militia like the Hezbollah, the Alawites in Syria and Zaidi Houthis in Yemen. The price was too high for an Ummah that is bitterly divided on sectarian and nationalist lines between the Arabs and Ajamis – who have been historically too willing to be prompted by the imperialist powers, the US in particular – to continue to indulge in a fratricidal conflict.

Trump reaped the benefits via unprecedented military sales worth $110 billion for a miniscule (“Muslim Nato”) army of 34,000 men and over $240 billion of business contracts plus the loyalty of the Arabs to tame Iran and strengthen Israel. The promise for peace between Israel and Palestinians remains an eyewash due to the heavy US tilt towards Israel at the cost of the Palestinians and the unreliability of this maverick American president, not to mention the Arab betrayal. 

The follow-up Arab-Islamic-American Summit was just to showcase the alignment of a major part of the ‘Ummah’ with the US under Muslim-basher Trump against Iran at a time when the Iranian moderates and reformists had defeated the rabid right-wing candidate with a big majority for President Rouhani in both local council elections and the presidential race. In his response, President Rouhani kept his cool while vowing to pursue the reform process at home and the dialogue process with the West.

What is, however, not understandable is why non-Arab Muslim countries, including Pakistan, were at the summit where they were taken as mere lackeys at the cost of causing a sectarian divide among and in Muslim-majority countries? Even more ridiculous was the way the Pakistani media ridiculed the plight of its clueless prime minister and praised the ‘attention’ General (r) Raheel Sharif got as the helmsman of a supposedly mercenary army in the service of the House of Saud.

Ever since the colonisation of the Middle East, redrawing of its map and creation of a settler Jewish state after the Holocaust, by displacing the Palestinians, the region has remained in the grip of a variety of conflicts, thanks to ethnic and sectarian divisions and the competing interests of the colonialists. The first challenge to imperialist domination was made by the then prime minister of Iran, Dr Mossadegh, who nationalised the oil companies owned by foreign powers. He was overthrown by the CIA with the help of its lackeys and Reza Shah Pahlavi was brought to power to become the policeman of the region.

A series of nationalist and Baathist revolutions and the success of the Algerian national liberation movement created a countervailing authoritarian popular force to challenge American and European hegemony and exploitation of Arab resources. Gamal Abdel Nasser’s decision to take over the Suez Canal infuriated the Western powers and a nationalist wave swept the Arab world. But the defeat of the Egyptian and Syrian armies at the hands of Israel in 1967 broke the back of Arab nationalism. While Egypt under Sadaat took the road of Camp David for capitulation with Israel and Shah Husain of Jordan made a separate peace with Tel Aviv, the Palestinians were left alone to suffer in the occupied lands in the Gaza strip and the West Bank.

It was the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) and its affiliates under Yasser Arafat that kept the flame of national resistance alive. But the Palestinians were repeatedly massacred and their resistance regularly crushed by both Israel and the Arabs. While promoting fundamentalist movements against nationalist regimes, which were quite repressive, and strengthening an exclusionary democratic Israel, the US and its Nato allies continued to patronise reactionary monarchies and military regimes in Pakistan and Turkey. Thanks to the cold war and a bi-polar world, the nationalist regimes survived and a steadfast front was created to counter Israel and Western hegemony.

The Iranian revolution under Ayatollah Khomeini and the Saur revolution of Afghanistan were a huge setback to American hegemony in the region. Then the US and its allies launched the Afghan Jihad with Gen Ziaul Haq as their henchman. That not only created a community of jihadi warriors but also a jihadi doctrine that continue to bleed the Muslim world and threaten the West with terrorism that climaxed with the 9/11 attacks.

With the end of the cold war and voluntary dissolution of the Soviet Union, the space for nationalist authoritarian Arab regimes was also eroded. One by one, all nationalist countries, including Iraq, Libya and Syria, were torn apart and leaders like Gaddafi and Saddam Hussain were eliminated. The Arab Peace Plan was floated and the Oslo initiative brought together Israel and the PLO. Later, the two-state formula was floated; it was accepted by the PLO, but the Israelis continued their occupation as well as expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied lands. We witnessed the Intifada and then a division in Palestinian ranks.

With the fiasco of the Arab Spring, reactionary forces were strengthened in the Arab world and Iran emerged as a theocratic revolutionary power against the most archaic regimes. In the meanwhile, the void created by the destruction of nationalist regimes was filled by extremist Sunni militias. With the survival of the Bashar regime in Syria and expansion of Iranian influence across Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, the Middle East has turned into a sectarian killing field – of Muslims by Muslims.

All this happened through a policy of divide, control and plunder. Multinationals made huge revenues from oil trade and Arab sheiks lived on rent for wasteful consumption – leaving little for real progress of their people except building huge concrete structures.

Pakistan, except for the Bhutto period, has remained a loyal ally of the US all through its history. Exceptionally, the Pakistani Parliament recently rightly decided not to take sides and keep out of the quagmires of Syria and Yemen. That is why it was even more troubling to see Pakistan’s name included – without the official consent of the government – in the formation of the so-called ‘Islamic Army’. The powers that be somehow pushed Pakistan towards the Saudis, with Gen (r) Raheel Sharif accepting King Salman’s offer to become the commander of an army that has estranged yet another important neighbor of Pakistan – Iran – with whom we don’t have any territorial dispute.

The prime minister should have avoided the embarrassment of participating in a conference that did not suit our national interests. Realising the dilemma, he has tried to beat a retreat by saying that Pakistan has not yet decided about its participation in this alliance that suits the US and Israel.

After our Afghan Jihad disaster, this is yet another defining moment. We need to avoid committing yet another fatal mistake that may cause the implosion of our state from within. We have to get out of conflict with all our neighbors and focus on our economy, institution building, consolidation of democracy, peace in the region and above all on efforts to uplift our people, 60 percent of whom live under the poverty line.   

The writer is a senior journalist.

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