Pakistan’s ominous role in attacks against Iran: How Islamabad benefits from conflict

The attacks against Iran carried out jointly by the USA and Israel has interestingly brought the Shia-Sunni rivalry into limelight with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia playing significant roles in the episode.

Majority of the Sunni majority countries have blamed Iran for the escalation since Tehran was attacked on Saturday. This appears like a Sunni world’s approach against the Shia Iran to settle the long standing rivalry, according to experts to track developments in the region.

Despite lip service condemning the strikes against Iran, Pakistan has played a key role in the USA plan to target Iran. Pakistan has played an important role by giving bases to the US for recent UAV attacks on Iran. Earlier, it hobnobbed with the US and provided intelligence for US’s attacks against Iran’s nuclear sites, experts recalled.


The Trump administration has reportedly entered into an arrangement with Field Marshal Asim Munir to use Pakistan as a base to target Iran and Afghanistan. On Saturday the US President hailed Pakistan in its campaign against Afghanistan. It appears that Pakistan is being built as the US lynchpin in South Asia.

There are Western media reports that Saudi Arabia had lobbied with the USA to attack Iran while in January Riyadh along with Qatar and other key Gulf states had lobbied with the Trump administration against attacking Iran. The Gulf states had then argued that any attack on Iran will have major repercussions in the Gulf region and it’s economy.

In January the crown prince of Saudi Arabia said that he would not allow his country's airspace or territory to be used for an attack on Iran. He said that Saudi Arabia would respect the sovereignty of Iran and urged Washington and Tehran to resolve issues through dialogue.

However, it appears now that the majority of the Sunni is satisfied about the attack against Iran and none including KSA has condemned Israel yet. Iran has long standing rivalry with Saudi Arabia and detente of the last few years appear to have been shattered in the current campaign.

Pakistan’s joining of Gaza Board of Peace along with Saudi Arabia and Qatar is another recent example of how the Sunni majority countries are coming together. Each of the actors Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Israel and the USA gain individual benefits from the current conflict in West Asia. Pakistan benefits economically and will reap defence and political favours from the US and Saudi Arabia. Last year’s Saudi-Pakistan defence pact is also driven by Riyadh’s rivalry against Iran and use of Pakistan military in case of any eventuality with Iran.