Pakistan avoiding active military role in Gulf riles Saudi Arabia

New Delhi: Pakistan has designed a strategy to avoid an active role in the Gulf theatre despite push from its closest defence partner in the region, Saudi Arabia, to activate their security partnership signed last year.

There is no indication yet that Pakistan is deploying its military assets in Saudi Arabia, following recent attacks by Tehran on Riyadh, said people familiar with the matter.

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ET has learnt that Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir has conveyed to Saudi crown prince Md Bin Salman that as the former's armed forces are heavily engaged in the Afghanistan sector, it cannot commit them for the Saudis.

However, Munir has assured that Islamabad can help mediate the crisis between Iran and Saudi Arabia, the people said. Salman, reportedly upset with the Pakistani decision, has asked the latter to honour the defence pact.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan had signed a 'Strategic Mutual Defence Agreement' according to which if one country comes under attack, the other will use all its resources to defend it.

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People said the Saudi crown prince has also come to know of Pakistan's strategy to make the border with Afghanistan hot to avoid committing defence resources to Riyadh for the ongoing conflict in West Asia.

Pakistan launched largescale military strikes against Afghanistan in the last fortnight. Interestingly, the Iran-Israel-US war had started around the same time, with Iran launching attacks against Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries at regular intervals since then.

The Saudi crown prince had reportedly called Munir and Pakistan PM Shebhaz Sharif thrice to convey his disappointment over the latter's lack of cooperation. Both were also summoned to Riyadh to convey the Kingdom's disappointment and were asked to send military support as per the defence pact.