The recent Arab and Islamic Summit has ended with a whimper, suggesting no concrete measures to stop the aggression of Israel against the Muslim countries. There were expectations that the airstrikes on a residential quarter of Qatar to assassinate the Hamas team of negotiators by Israel might have jolted the Arabs out of their traditional cowardice and provoked them to pool their resources to create a joint defence force and adopt other punitive measures such as trade boycotts, suspension of diplomatic ties and all agreements including the Abraham Accords, a ban on commercial overflights, and a concerted campaign for the ouster or suspension of this rogue state from the United Nations Organisation. The inconsequential Summit conveyed a message of despair and disappointment in the Muslim world and exposed the paralysis of the Muslim leaders.

However, a ray of hope pierced the dark clouds of gloom overcasting the skies of the Muslim world when, at the heels of the Islamic and Arab Summit which was marked by concerns and inclining moods towards a collective security response to the aggressor which failed to translate into concrete action, Pakistan and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia inked a Mutual Defence Agreement during the visit of Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif to Riyadh on Wednesday, 17 September. The Accord, reflecting the shared security concerns of both countries, has symbolic as well as substantive diplomatic and strategic significance. Pakistan and Saudi Arabia have a history of shared defence concerns and cooperation. However, the present agreement has concretised the informal defence cooperation that existed between Islamabad and Riyadh for decades.

The shifting geopolitical........

© The Friday Times