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 role in West Asia conflict mirrors a familiar pattern—use and discard by the US

Donald Trump’s desire for Pakistan and other Muslim countries to align themselves with the Abraham Accords has put Islamabad in an unusually fraught position.

Pakistan Army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir was confident that his multiple backchannel visits to Iran would soon pay rich dividends as both Washington and Tehran were desperate to sign a long-awaited deal to formally terminate the conflict. Munir appeared determined to deliver what the US President Donald Trump expected from his “favourite field marshal”.

The wider architecture of US-Iran engagement remains driven by forces far beyond Islamabad’s direct control. But Pakistan’s military establishment was eager for the deal announcement to project it as Munir’s personalised statecraft and Pakistan’s geopolitical indispensability. However, the regional chessboard has shifted abruptly, and Pakistan might just have lost its moment to bask in the sun. 

Trump’s latest desire for Pakistan and other Muslim countries to align themselves with the Abraham Accords under a bigger scheme of things has put Islamabad in an unusually fraught position. Having garnered international attention and visibility through his mediation efforts in evolving US-Iran engagement, Munir is in danger of being stuck between ultimately irreconcilable pressures of Trumpian expectations, the domestic Islamist outlook and Pakistan’s historical stance towards the Palestinian cause. 

What at first seemed an opportunity for diplomatic advancement appears to be quickly coming to mirror a familiar case of use and discard, reinforcing Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s remark that the US had treated Pakistan like “toilet paper”. 

A one-sided love affair

No country can be “used” in this shabby manner by any external manipulator unless, through its own strategic choices, it has placed itself in such a position. It’s possible that even Munir himself, somewhere deep down inside, may begin to wonder whether Trump merely “used” him.

Yet this pattern is hardly new in Pakistan’s strategic experience. Pakistan’s early history makes its reliance on external patronage almost inevitable. Formed in........

© ThePrint