Pakistan has long balanced its ties with Iran and Saudi Arabia. The widening Gulf conflict is testing how much strategic room Islamabad still has. A Warning From Islamabad On 8 September, I read a statement from Pakistan's Foreign Ministry that would once have looked routine. Islamabad condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia and declared "complete solidarity" with the kingdom. The wording mattered more this time. Pakistan now belongs to a three-country defence arrangement that treats an armed attack on Saudi Arabia as an attack on Pakistan and Türkiye as well. A day later, the diplomatic language acquired harder edges. Reuters reported that Pakistan had conveyed a Saudi message to Iran urging Tehran to use its influence to restrain the Houthis after attacks struck an airbase and oil infrastructure in southern Saudi Arabia. Seventy-three people had been wounded in the earlier wave of attacks. Iran's response, according to a senior Iranian official quoted by Reute...
Strategic analysis on geopolitics, financial systems, and Pakistani affairs, blended with personal stories and commentary from Karachi. Written by Munaeem Jamal.