Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Pakistan’s influence in Middle East goes back to 1971

The Pakistani garrison at Tabuk began blossoming—not to defend any particular border, but to protect the House of Saud from destruction.

The soldiers landed on the blood-red cliffs under the light of the setting sun: Less than two kilometres across, the island of Tunb-e Kuchak was only home to saw-scaled vipers and cobras, living under the dense saltwort undergrowth. Things went less well on Tunb-e Bozorg, the larger of the twin islands. The Emir of soon-to-be-an-Emirate Ras-al-Khaimah, Saqr Bin Mohammed al-Qasimi, had been notified of the Iranian landing in advance, but neglected to inform the six-man police contingent on the island. Firing broke out, killing three Iranian soldiers. The survivors retaliated, mowing down four police officers, then demolishing their building, the local school, and several homes.

Late on the morning of 30 November 1971, Imperial Iran’s troops completed their operation, taking charge of a third island, Abu Musa, as part of a British-negotiated deal with Sharjah. The 150-odd people on Tunb-e Bozorg, who made a living from fishing and smuggling, were ordered off the island, after the dead had been buried. Tehran concluded agreements to share the gas and oil revenues from the Pars gasfield; the Emirates had no choice but to sign.

For Indians seeking to make sense of the military influence Pakistan exercises in Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf, the events on the tiny islands in the middle of the Hormuz strait are key to getting a little-understood story right. The crisis in the Persian Gulf didn’t begin with the Iranian revolution in 1979; nor was Tehran’s nuclear programme the problem.

As British control began to dissolve from 1971, the monarchies on the Persian Gulf rim suddenly began realising that their oil wealth wouldn’t guarantee their survival. And that’s where Pakistan stepped in, offering its military to a staggering 22........

© ThePrint