When the chips are down, an individual or a country discovers who its genuine friends truly are. At the start of Operation Storm of Resolve to liberate Yemen from Iranian-backed militias both Pakistan and Turkey reassuringly announced they were on board. But their enthusiasm visibly waned subsequent to Iran’s arm-twisting.
Initially there was a flurry of reports that Islamabad had offered to contribute ground troops, which in retrospect may have amounted to mere speculation. We do know that the kingdom officially requested the involvement of Pakistani fighter jets and warships.
The Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accused Tehran of working to dominate the Middle East, called upon the Iranians to pull their forces out of Yemen, Iraq and Syria, while announcing his country was mulling the provision of logistical support to the Saudi-led Arab coalition.
However, since Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who has blasted the intervention as aggression going as far as to label it “genocide that can be prosecuted in international courts” and began actively lobbying both Turkey and Pakistan to back off from their respective stances, those Saudi allies appear to have caved in to his demands. Ultimately, those Arab states that are actively involved are on their own, apart from the US that has warned Iran against backing Al Houthi rebels.
US Secretary of State John Kerry had some tough words for Tehran. “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,” he said, adding, “there have been — there are, obviously, flights coming from Iran … and we’ve traced it and know this”.
Washington is backing up its message with intelligence-sharing and the provision of daily aerial tanker flights to refuel Saudi and Emirati F-15s and F-16s. Moreover, Obama has blessed the sale of sophisticated weapons to Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Gulf States.
Kudos to the Obama administration for coming forward! And especially when less than a week before Kerry and Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javed Zarif were celebrating the signing of a historic nuclear framework agreement, a core staple of US President Barack Obama’s foreign policy on which some analysts assert his presidential legacy rests.
America’s stand on Yemen could put the final deal scheduled to be signed at the end of June in jeopardy, particularly when there is disagreement between the US and Iran as to the time frame for the lifting of sanctions. Potentially, albeit somewhat unlikely, the harsh rhetoric from the US State Department on Yemen risks becoming a nail in the coffin of this fledgling US-Iranian rapprochement, binning years of negotiations.
The Saudis would be correct in feeling that Pakistan has let them down. Riyadh and Islamabad have forged a strategic alliance, have enjoyed a mutual defence relationship for decades — and Riyadh has long been one of Islamabad’s main financial benefactors.
Although Pakistan’s constitution places such decisions in the hands of the prime minister, on this occasion Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif turned over his responsibility to lawmakers, who not only voted ‘No’, but also approved a resolution that the crisis “could plunge the region into turmoil”.
Just days before the vote, Zarif had visited Pakistan and met Sharif to discuss the conflict. To add insult to injury, Sharif said he planned to work with Iran on a ceasefire facilitating peace talks. While it’s the case that Pakistan is war weary, one has to wonder whether Sharif was influenced by his keenness for a proposed Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline.
Turkey’s U-turn was just as dramatic; early last month, the Turkish president visited the Saudi monarch ostensibly in a display of Sunni unity. Yet, warming relations with Riyadh combined with his anti-Iranian rhetoric didn’t deter Erdogan from heading to Tehran for talks with Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani when mutual trade deals were signed and the prospect of gas deals were discussed.
During a press conference Rouhani announced that Turkey and Iran agree “that war and bloodshed must stop in the area immediately, a complete ceasefire must be established and the strikes must stop,” he said.
Given that predominately Sunni Arab countries clearly have such fickle friends upon which they are unable to rely in times of need, the Joint Arab Defence Force, currently being fine-tuned by the chiefs-of staff of participating states, is required more than ever. On Yemen, they have America’s support, which should be appreciated, but such support won’t always be forthcoming. If anything, the Arab coalition’s military intervention has served to weed out fair-weather friends from staunch allies. A wake-up call worth noting!
Linda S. Heard is a specialist writer on Middle East affairs. She can be contacted at lheard@gulfnews.com
