United States On Patrol for Iranian Arms Shipments

US on alert over suspected Iranian arms shipments

© Wikimedia Commons | The USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier pictured in 2005

Two warships have joined US forces in the Arabian Sea, US officials said Monday, where they will monitor an Iranian convoy suspected of carrying weapons to Houthi rebels in violation of a UN arms embargo adopted last week.

"We believe these vessels may have arms and equipment on board,” a defence official said of the Iranian ships.

“If they are delivered to Yemen, it will further destabilise" the country, the official told AFP.

The US Navy said Monday that the USS Theodore Roosevelt and the USS Normandy guided-missile cruiser would "ensure the vital shipping lanes in the region remain open and safe". The deployment brings to nine the number of US warships in the region.

Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steven Warren said the US warships did not have orders to intercept the Iranian vessels, however. Officials said that if intercepting the ships proved necessary it would likely be carried out by the Saudi coalition.

The Iranian maritime presence in the region is comprised of nine ships including two patrol boats, a senior US defence official told AFP, adding that the exact destination of the convoy was unknown.

A Houthi official called the arrival of the US warships part of a “siege” against Yemen’s people.

"The goal of the movement of American ships is to strengthen the siege imposed on Yemen and put the Yemeni people under collective punishment," Houthi politburo member Mohammed al-Bukhaiti told Reuters.

Strategically located on key shipping routes and bordering oil-rich Saudi Arabia, Yemen was plunged into chaos last year when the Houthis seized much of the capital, Sanaa. The Shiite Houthis, who are widely believed to be backed by Tehran, seized the presidential palace and dissolved parliament earlier this year.

A coalition of Sunni Arab nations led by Saudi Arabia launched an air campaign against the rebels in March, vowing to restore the regime of President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi, who fled to Riyadh as the rebels advanced on his refuge in the southern city of Aden.

The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar are taking part in the Saudi-led coalition along with Egypt, Jordan and Sudan. Morocco and Pakistan have declared support for the effort but have yet to contribute forces.

The coalition says it has carried out more than 2,000 strikes since the start of the campaign, seizing complete control of Yemeni airspace and knocking out the rebels’ infrastructure. Warplanes launched more air strikes against the Houthis and allied Shiite militias overnight.

The United States is not taking part in the strikes but is providing intelligence and logistical support to the coalition.

The conflict has raised the spectre of Yemen becoming the epicentre of a proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran that could threaten to engulf the region.

More than 944 people have been killed and almost 3,500 wounded in Yemen's unrest, the World Health Organization said on Tuesday, citing Yemeni health authorities.

YEMENI FLEE FIGHTING

The civilian death toll from a raid on a missile depotin the capital on Monday has risen to 38 with more than 500 others wounded. The twin air strikes sparked powerful explosions that flattened nearby houses, medics said.

Hopes for ceasefire

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said he was optimistic that a ceasefire might be announced later on Tuesday, the Tasnim news agency reported.

"We are optimistic that in the coming hours, after many efforts, we will see a halt to military attacks in Yemen," Abdollahian was quoted as saying.

But Saudi Ambassador Abdallah al-Mouallimi told UN chief Ban Ki-moon on Monday that "certain conditions" must be met before the air campaign is suspended.

He said those conditions were clearly spelled out in a resolution adopted by the UN Security Council last week that imposed an arms embargo on the rebels. The resolution demands that the Houthis pull back from all the territory they have seized – including from the capital – and that they return to peace talks.

Ban called last week for an "immediate ceasefire" amid UN concerns that the conflict could erupt into a major humanitarian crisis.

Iran has offered to mediate and set out a four-point peace plan last week, but the proposal was roundly rejected by Hadi's government.

"Any mediation effort coming from Iran is unacceptable because Iran is involved in the Yemen issue," Yemen’s Foreign Minister Riyadh Yassin said.

Yemen has long struggled with deep tribal divisions that have been complicated by an insurgency launched by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which Washington considers to be the branch of the jihadist network that poses the biggest threat to the West. A US drone strike on Monday killed five suspected al Qaeda militants in the province of Shabwa.

AQAP has taken advantage of the chaos in Yemen to seize vast swaths of territory in Hadramawt province in the southeast, including the regional capital Mukalla.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Pakistani Parliament Calling for Neutrality in Yemen

Pakistan MPs draft resolution urging neutrality in Yemen crisis

Pakistan’s parliament adopted a draft resolution on Yemen on Friday urging Pakistan to stay neutral in the conflict, as expected, expressing support for Saudi Arabia and calling on all factions to resolve their differences peacefully.

Sunni Saudi Arabia had asked its staunch ally, Sunni-majority Pakistan, to join the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen and had requested warships, aircraft and troops.

Pakistani members of parliament have spoken out against becoming militarily involved in Yemen all week and the draft resolution is bound to disappoint the Saudis.

"The parliament of Pakistan expresses serious concern on the deteriorating security and humanitarian situation in Yemen and its implications for peace and stability of the region," the resolution said.

"(It) desires that Pakistan should maintain neutrality in the Yemen conflict so as to be able to play a proactive diplomatic role to end the crisis."

>> Why old ally Pakistan is wary of joining Saudi offensive in Yemen

The Pakistan military, which has ruled the country for more than half its history, has said it will respect the civilian government’s decision.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has repeatedly said he will defend any threat to Saudi Arabia.

The resolution said parliament "expresses unequivocal support for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and affirms that in case of violation of its territorial integrity or any threat to Haramain Sharifain (Islamic holy places), Pakistan will stand shoulder to shoulder with Saudi Arabia and its people."

Shi’ite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia are rivals for power in the Middle East and many in Pakistan fear being caught between them if Pakistani troops are sent to Yemen.

Last month, a Saudi-led coalition began air strikes in Yemen against Iranian-allied Houthi rebels. Saudi Arabia and Yemen share a border and Saudi Arabia says it is afraid that instability might spill over to its territory.

Pakistan’s parliament began debating the request on Monday and no legislator spoke in support of sending troops for Saudi to use in Yemen.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif wound up a two-day trip to Pakistan on Thursday in which he urged Pakistan to reject the Saudi request.

Pakistani army chief General Raheel Sharif had publicly remained silent on the request. Army officials have said they will defer to the civilian government.

Saudi Arabia’s request had put Pakistan in a tight spot. The nuclear-armed nation of 180 million people has strong economic, religious and military ties to Saudi Arabia but also a long and porous border with Iran in a mineral-rich region plagued by a separatist insurgency.

(REUTERS)

India Modernizing Air Forces

India orders 36 French-made Rafale fighter jets, PM Modi says

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Friday he had ordered 36 “ready-to-fly” French-made Rafale fighter jets to modernise his country’s ageing warplane fleet as neighbouring states upgraded their military hardware.

Indian military officials have warned that their air force risks a major capability gap opening up with China and Pakistan without new western warplanes or if local defence contractors cannot produce what the military needs in a timely manner.

“I have asked President (Francois Hollande) to supply 36 ready-to-fly Rafale jets to India,” Modi said at a news conference on the first day of a state visit to France.

“Our civil servants will discuss (terms and conditions) in more detail and continue the negotiations,” he said, speaking in Hindi through an interpreter.

The deal, another boost for French manufacturer Dassault Aviation after it sealed its long-awaited first export deal to Egypt in February, could be worth about 4 billion euros.
President Hollande said Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian would travel to India soon to finalise the deal.

India and France have already been in exclusive negotiations for three years. The value of a larger 126-plane deal being negotiated is estimated to have grown to about $20 billion from an initial $12 billion, primarily because of an Indian requirement that 108 of the jets be built in the country.

A French defence ministry source said the deal announced on Friday was separate from the original negotiations and came about after new Indian Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar indicated the country’s urgent requirements.

“We informed them we were ready to respond to their operational needs separate from the tender under discussion for three years,” the source said.

India’s military has said it needs to start replacing its ageing jet fleet from 2017.

“There was a real operational need because India needs combat jets because a certain number of countries have been equipping themselves, so there was a desire to speed up the process,” Dassault Chief Executive Eric Trappier told Europe 1 radio.

The country already has previous ties with Dassault, having bought Mirage 2000 fighter jets. In March, Dassault delivered two modernised Mirage jets to India.

Analysts say Dassault’s deal with Egypt may have helped break the logjam in negotiations with other customers, since they are now on notice that if they want to have Rafales they may have to wait for them.

Since the Egypt deal, Dassault is in the “final stage” of negotiations to sell up to 36 Rafale warplanes to Qatar. It is also in talks aimed at supplying 16 of the multi-role combat jets to Malaysia and has resumed discussions over potential fighter sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the source said.

Tensions in the Middle East, instability in eastern Europe and concerns in parts of Asia about regional border threats and the rise of China have further fuelled the arms race, but shifts and sudden reversals in the various industry talks are common.

(REUTERS)

Rouhani Meets Erdogan

Rouhani meets Erdoğan as regional conflicts strain Iranian-Turkish ties
Sunni/Shia rift brought to surface as sharp split between Tehran and Ankara over Syrian and Yemeni civil wars cool relations between once-friendly neighbours
 Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, right, meeting his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at the Saadabad palace in Tehran. Rouhani praised Turkey for backing the recent nuclear agreement with the west.
 Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, right, meets his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, at the Saadabad palace in Tehran. Rouhani praised Turkey for backing the recent nuclear agreement with the west. Photograph: AP
Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Tuesday 7 April 2015 14.12 EDT Last modified on Tuesday 7 April 2015 14.52 EDT
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Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has met his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, in Tehran amid strong differences between the two countries over the region’s most bruising conflicts, especially the Syrian civil war and the Saudi-led campaign in Yemen.

Erdoğan infuriated Iranians last month when he said the Islamic republic was “trying to dominate the region” and accused Tehran of pursuing a sectarian agenda in Syria, Iraq and Yemen. More than 60 Iranian MPs had asked for his visit to be cancelled.

Despite this, Erdoğan was welcomed by Rouhani in the Iranian capital on Tuesday and, in an unusual departure from Tehran’s diplomatic protocol, the Turkish leader’s motorcade had a mounted escort as it made its way into the Saadabad palace, following a similar ceremony held for the Iranian president in Ankara.

Erdoğan also met Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader in Iran. In a direct reference to Turkey’s support for the Saudi-led intervention there, Khamenei’s Twitter account announced later: “Solution to Yemen crisis is to stop foreign intervention & invasion. It’s on Yemenis to decide for their future.”


“We’ve had a substantial and good meeting,” Rouhani said in a joint press conference after the two leaders met behind closed doors, praising Turkey for welcoming the preliminary agreement reached in high-level nuclear negotiations in Switzerland.

“Our both countries want to increase the [bilateral] trade volume from $14bn [£9.5bn] in the previous year to nearly $30bn,” the Iranian president said. Rouhani predicted that a final agreement between Iran and the west, which could lead to the lifting of economic sanctions, would boost economic ties between Tehran and Ankara.

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Turkey imported almost $10bn worth of goods from Iran in 2014 and exported a total of $4bn. Ankara provided a financial lifeline to Tehran when international sanctions cut off its banking system from the outside world by paying for Iranian natural gas in gold.

Iran and Turkey share a long border and have had peaceful relations in modern times, usually putting economic relations over regional politics. But relations became frosty as the two capitals followed opposing paths over the Syrian conflict.

Iran has extended unwavering support for Bashar al-Assad’s regime, while Turkey backed Syrian opposition forces and called for Assad to be removed from power. In Yemen, too, they have strong disagreements: Iran supports the Shia Houthi rebels but Turkey has backed Saudi Arabia’s air strikes against the Houthi forces, also known as Ansar Allah (the Supporters of God). In recent months, Turkey has become closer to Iran’s main rival in the region, Saudi Arabia.

Erdoğan sparked a row in March after voicing opposition to Iran’s growing influence in the Middle East, echoing similar concerns made by Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states. He urged Tehran to respect the territorial integrity of Syria, Iraq and Yemen by withdrawing any forces it has in those countries.

“Iran’s attitude towards the matter is not sincere because they have a sectarian agenda. So they will want to fill the void that will be created by Daesh [Islamic State] themselves,” Erdoğan said at the time.

Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, strongly objected. “It would be better if those who have created irreparable damages with their strategic mistakes and lofty politics would adopt responsible policies,” he said.

Iran accuses Turkey of supporting takfiris, its terminology for Sunni extremists. Hossein Shariatmadari, the hardline editor of the state-run newspaper Kayhan, said before Erdoğan’s arrival that the Turkish president’s visit to Tehran was an insult to the Iranian people.

Fadi Hakura, an expert on Turkey and associate fellow at Chatham House, said it was unlikely that such disputes would lead to a complete breakdown in relations between the two states. “Iran and Turkey have maintained their bilateral relationship in the face of major disagreements over regional issues. They cannot afford to allow their bilateral relations to experience a complete rupture.

“The two countries share a common border, which is the most peaceful border in the Middle East since the 17th century, and they have substantial energy and economic ties.”

Nevertheless, Hakura said relations were not as warm as they had been five years ago. “Iran no longer trusts Turkey as an effective mediator and does not engage in strategic dialogues with Turkey on the nuclear issue or other issues such as Iraq, Syria and Yemen,” he said.

“In essence, the Arab spring has brought the so-called Sunni/Shia divide to the surface and that has led to the cooling of relations between Tehran and Ankara.”

Iran Accuses Saudis of Genocide

Iran's supreme leader accuses Saudis of 'genocide' in Yemen

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei escalates rhetoric over Riyadh’s intervention in sectarian fighting between government and Shia rebels

 Yemen air strike

 The scene of an air strike in al-Jiraf district in Sanaa, Yemen. Photograph: Rex Shutterstock

Saeed Kamali Dehghan

Thursday 9 April 2015 13.50 EDT Last modified on Thursday 9 April 2015 20.02 EDT

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Iran’s supreme leader has accused Saudi Arabia of committing genocide in Yemen and said air strikes against Houthi rebels are doomed to fail, in a sharp escalation of tensions between the two rivals over the outcome of yet another bruising conflict in the Middle East.

In Iran’s most critical comments yet, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis was a mistake and warned that the intervention will ultimately backfire on Riyadh.

Tehran’s foreign ministry also summoned the Saudi envoy over claims that Iran was meddling in Yemen. Saudi Arabia and its Sunni Arab allies accuse Shia Iran of militarily backing the Houthis, who call themselves Ansar Allah (“supporters of Allah”) and belong to the Zaydi sect of Shia Islam.

The Saudis are attempting to halt an advance by the Houthis and reinstate ousted president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, who fled first to the main southern city of Aden, and then to Riyadh. Houthi fighters, who control the capital city Sana’a, have spread out across the country and are now engaged in heavy street fighting in Aden.

Khamenei’s stark warning came as the UN secretary general said that air strikes and rebel advances in Yemen “have turned an internal political crisis into a violent conflict that risks deep and long-lasting regional repercussions”. Ban Ki-moon told reporters: “The last thing the region and our world need is more of the chaos and crimes we have seen in Libya and Syria.”

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, alluded to the Saudis’ concerns, saying Washington would not stand by as Iran wreaks havoc in the Middle East. Khamenei said the US, which is supporting the Saudi campaign, was siding with the oppressor rather than the oppressed.

Relations between Iran and the US have improved over matters such as the Iranian nuclear programme and the fight against Islamic State in Iraq, but they have opposing views on other issues, such as the Syrian civil war, in which Tehran backs Bashar al-Assad.

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There are increasing fears in the Middle East that the fighting in Yemen might spiral out of control, with deeper Saudi involvement provoking the Iranians to follow suit, leading to a full-scale proxy war of an even more sectarian nature. Iran dispatched a destroyer and another warship to waters off Yemen on Wednesday.

“By invading Yemen, Saudis are making a mistake, setting a bad precedent in the region,” Khamenei said. “It’s a huge crime to kill children, destroy houses and obliterate a country’s infrastructure … This is a crime and genocide which can be prosecuted internationally.

“They will not win, they will suffer loss and damage … Their aggression is not acceptable and I warn that they should stop their crimes in Yemen.”

Khamenei compared Saudi Arabia to Israel, Tehran’s sworn enemy, saying that their military campaign in Yemen was similar to Israel’s in Gaza.

But Saudis and the US say Iran also plays a major role in Yemen, a charge Tehran vehemently denies. Speaking on US TV, Kerry said on Wednesday that Washington closely monitors Iranian movement in the Yemeni conflict. The United Arab Emirates’ foreign minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed al-Nahyan, has echoed Kerry’s sentiments.

“There have been – there are, obviously – flights coming from Iran. Every single week there are flights from Iran and we’ve traced it and know this,” Kerry told PBS television. “Iran needs to recognise that the United States is not going to stand by while the region is destabilised or while people engage in overt warfare across lines, international boundaries, in other countries.”

Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani, has also called the military intervention in Yemen a mistake, but in milder terms.

“A great nation like Yemen will not submit to bombing. Come, let us all think about ending war. Let us think about a ceasefire,” he said. “Let us accept that the future of Yemen will be in the hands of the people of Yemen, not anyone else.”

At least 643 people, including children, have died and thousands wounded since the violence erupted in Yemen last year. On Thursday alone, at least 20 Houthi rebels were killed in southern Yemen in eight dawn air raids by Saudi fighter jets. According to the UN agency for children’s rights, Unicef, about 30% of fighters in the armed groups were minors. “We are seeing children in battle, at checkpoints and unfortunately among [those] killed and injured,” Julien Harneis, Unicef’s representative in Yemen, said on Thursday.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Facebook Twitter Pinterest

 Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: ‘This is a crime and genocide which can be prosecuted internationally.’ Photograph: STR/AP

Saudi Arabia, which launched their air strikes last month, is backed by Turkey, Egypt, Qatar and the UAE, who all fear Iranian control of Yemen. Gulf Arabs often complain about Iran’s increasing influence in Iraq and Syria, though the exact extent of Iranian support for rebel forces in Yemen is unclear.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, met Rouhani and Khamenei in Tehran last week to discuss Yemen, among other regional issues. He published an article on Thursday warning that the Islamic world is at the risk of “disintegration” due to sectarian conflicts between Sunnis and Shias in the region.

“You can have a different denomination [of Islam] but if you seek to impose one denomination on another you will break up the ummah [Islamic community],” he warned.

Adam Baron from the European Council on Foreign Relations struck a cautious note on the notion that the conflict in Yemen is an Iranian-Saudi proxy war. “Houthis are not Iranian proxies: the fact of the matter is that Houthis are motivated and deeply rooted in Yemen and their decision-making is largely, if not entirely, rooted in Yemeni local issues,” he said.

“I do not see this as a proxy war. That being said, I think what we are seeing is a regionalisation of an internal political conflict. It was sort of started by Iran but the main catalyst for the regionalisation of this is the Saudi military campaign.

“The reason why we are seeing such language from the supreme leader is that his hands – or rather the Iranian government’s hands – are pretty tied at this point. In terms of providing financial or military support for the Houthis, it’s very hard to see how they would be able to do it. Making these strong statements are almost their only option.”

Baron said Khamenei and Erdogan were speaking about a potential political solution to the Yemeni crisis on Wednesday. “I’m under the impression that that is in Tehran’s interest and Riyadh’s, as well as all Yemeni factions and regular Yemenis.”

Pakistan Split Over Yemen Issue

Saudi request for help in Yemen sparks political crisis in Pakistan

Analysis: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has to walk a thin line between Saudi pressure and Pakistani fears

April 8, 2015 11:50AM ET

by Omar Waraich

During the first Gulf War in 1991, Pakistan’s prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, dispatched Pakistani troops to Saudi Arabia, where they became a part of the U.S.-led coalition confronting Saddam Hussein. At the time, the decision was unpopular at home, with criticism coming not just from the political opposition but also the then sitting army chief.

Sharif is prime minister again and faces a similar dilemma: whether to accede to a Saudi request for Pakistani combat troops, fighter jets and warships to join its 10-nation coalition assembled to stop the Houthi revolt in Yemen and thwart the ambitions of their alleged backers in Iran. This time, Sharif is confronted with almost as much hostility as he was a quarter century ago. The target isn’t the U.S., but the opaque and one-sided nature of Pakistan’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.

Since Monday, Pakistan’s parliament has been raucously debating the Saudi request, with a usually fractious opposition uniting against a Pakistani intervention. Several speakers said they consider Saudi Arabia a “brotherly” country but bridled at the suggestion that Pakistan should be dragged into a possibly ruinous foreign war that could worsen relations with Iran and risk further inflaming sectarian tensions at home. Ghulam Ahmed Bilour, a member of the Pashtun nationalist Awami National Party, was angry at the suggestions that the Pakistan army were mere mercenaries. “My army is not a rent-an-army,” Bilour said.

Sharif is also on the defensive after a flurry of reports from Saudi news sources claiming Pakistan had already agreed to be part of the coalition. The reports,  which Islamabad has not explicitly denied, sparked concerns that Sharif’s government had made a commitment to the Saudis without informing the Pakistani public.

“We demand Nawaz Sharif tell us the truth,” Imran Khan, the former cricket legend turn opposition leader, told reporters outside parliament this week. “I don’t know what agreement Nawaz Sharif has done in Saudi Arabia. But I do know that the Pakistani people’s needs are more deserving than Saudi Arabia’s territorial boundary.”

Undeniably, Sharif is close to the Saudis. After he was ousted in a military coup in 1999, he found a home in exile in the desert kingdom. Sharif became the first non-Saudi to receive a special economic development loan from the Saudi government to develop a business there. His son is still the owner of a thriving steel mill in Jeddah. Last year, the Saudis provided a $1.5 billion grant to Pakistan’s ailing economy at Sharif’s request.

That long history raises suspicions Sharif is vulnerable to pressure from Riyadh. “The prime minister has shown that he understands the pitfalls of Pakistani troops being involved in a distant conflict,” Mushahid Hussain, the chairman of Pakistan’s Senate Defense Committee, told Al Jazeera. “At the same time, there are commitments and obligations to [the Saudis] who have been with us in moments of crisis or difficulty.”

Pakistan first stationed troops in Saudi Arabia during the 1980s. That commitment has been dramatically scaled down to just a few hundred troops, but Pakistani opposition politicians are concerned about further taxing Pakistan’s already strained military. “Forty percent of the army is engaged in the war on terror,” said Hussain.

Since returning to the prime minister’s office nearly two years ago, Sharif has withstood a bruising standoff with the army, months of anti-government street protests and the worst attack on civilians in Pakistan’s history at a Peshawar school last December. These events have already drained much of his authority, and a messy foreign war is likely to do further damage.

Getting involved could also be divisive domestically. The crisis in Yemen isn’t explicitly sectarian, but there are fears that it could lead to a full-blown regional proxy war between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran. Pakistan’s current trouble with anti-Shia violence stems from an earlier Saudi-Iranian proxy war on its soil in the 1980s.

An estimated one-fifth of Pakistan’s population is Shia, making it the largest home to Shias outside Iran. Last Friday, anti-Shia armed groups in Pakistan — including those behind a wave of horrific anti-Shia violence in recent years — took to the streets to rouse support for the Saudis and chant slogans against Iranian influence, just as they did at the start of the Syrian crisis.

Sharif hopes to defuse any hint of sectarianism that could stand in the way of better relations with Tehran, which has traditionally been closer to rivals India and Afghanistan. Under the sanctions regime, plans for a gas pipeline from Iran to Pakistan were shelved. Now there is hope that those plans can be revived to ease Pakistan’s chronic shortage of winter gas. Iran is also crucial to any postwar settlement in Afghanistan.

During the debate in parliament, Sharif took the unusual step of inviting the Iranians to be part of a diplomatic solution, possibly brokered by Islamabad and Ankara. Pakistan hopes that, as the only other non-Arab country lending Saudi Arabia support against the Houthis, they can calm regional fears.

The Iranian Foreign Minister, Javad Zarif, is visiting Islamabad on Wednesday. His trip comes on the heels of high-profile visits from the Egyptian and Bahraini defense ministers, both members of the Saudi coalition in Yemen. The Pakistanis have also been racking up air miles with a ministerial delegation visiting Riyadh and Ankara.

For the Saudis, Pakistani support is important for two reasons. If they wish to reclaim territory lost to the Houthis inside Yemen, they may need to turn to the Pakistanis or the Egyptians for ground troops. Pakistan also offers symbolic importance, as a nuclear power that borders Iran, and as proof that Saudi Arabia can rally a coalition that reaches out beyond the Arab world to Iran’s eastern and northern borders.

There is room for a compromise: Pakistan could agree to extend the Saudis its official support, but withhold troops and materiel, and instead pledge to defend Saudi territory in a manner that is unlikely to be tested. But to reach that middle ground, Sharif will have to navigate between Saudi pressure and Pakistani fear.