Can Imran Khan Bridge the Iranian- Saudi Divide?
By Karamatullah K. Ghori
Toronto, Canada

Imran was supposed to fix a Pakistan in turmoil. That’s was his pitch all through those long, turbulent, years—nearly a quarter century, in fact—that he was on the stump crying himself hoarse about a Pakistan that was going to dogs and falling apart under its thieving rulers.
Now, more than a year in office his agenda to fix a tottering Pakistan is still struggling to take shape, while discontent against him and his rule has started taxing the fidelity and patience of his aficionados.
But while his home-renovation initiative may be hitting rough shoals, he’s making waves in foreign policy where his detractors initially thought of him to be a novice.
In the past three weeks he has been to New York where his seminal address to the UN General Assembly, last September 27, planted his feet firmly into the exclusive terrain of global statesmen.
Back home from that epochal appearance at the world conclave of leaders, he dashed off to Beijing, last week, to confab with China’s leader XI Jinping, on issues related to CPEC. The Chinese were said to be unhappy about the sluggish pace of co-operation from Imran’s govt. on projects supposed to be completed earlier.
Now, as these lines are being written, Imran Khan has landed in Tehran to commence his efforts to “facilitate” the bridging of the gulf between two of Pakistan’s closest friends, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Islamic Republic of Iran.
It doesn’t take a genius to know how deeply divided the Saudis and the Iranians are. They have been at loggerheads, ideologically, ever since the Islamic revolution in Iran spawned a new calculus of power in the region. The Saudis didn’t quite see eye to eye with a monarchic Iran when the Shah was in total command of that country. The Shah, in those days, was the principal policeman and watchdog of a neo-imperialist US while the Saudis were at best the junior policeman.
Since the Iranian cataclysm, the Saudis have, no doubt, been anointed as the major watchdog of American and Western interests in the Gulf. They relish and greedily covet their new title. However, Iran, infused with its Islamic revolutionary zeal is not prepared to accept them as such or agree to stay silently attuned to the Saudis playing the role of the regional ‘big brother.’
But their crisis of confidence has worsened since the Saudis invaded the dirt-poor Yemen, next door to them, on the trumped up charge that the rebel Houthis of Yemen—who had overthrown the Saudi client regime in Sanaa and driven the puppet Saudi rulers into exile in Riyadh—were votaries of Iran and fighting its proxy war against KSA.
It’s not only Yemen that has created so much bad blood between the Saudis and the Iranians. There’s the Iranian underpinning of the Assad regime in war-torn Syria, or the dominance of Lebanon by the Iranian-supported Hizbollah—detested by the Saudis—that adds to the bulging portfolio of deep differences between the two contenders for supremacy in the Gulf.
To cut a long story short, there’s a quantum of history, predating the rise of Islam in the Arabian Peninsula, that has traditionally divided the Arab-end of the Gulf from its Iranian part. The chasm between Arab and Ajam is deep-rooted going back to centuries. This famous quote, attributed to the Second Rashid Caliph, Omar, best encapsulates the essence of the rivalry. He is said to have intoned that if it were up to him, he’d usher in a wall of fire between Arab and Ajm.
The torching of a high valued Saudi Aramco oil refinery in Abqaiq, on September 14, has precipitated the ongoing and intensified spat between KSA and Iran. The Houthis of Yemen claimed kudos for targeting such a prized Saudi location. But the Saudis blamed Iran for firing the precision-pointed scud missiles that rained the fires of hell on Abqaiq. And, in fact, before they could point the finger at Tehran for that dastardly attack, their American mentors had already jumped into the fray, with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, brazenly holding Iranian directly responsible for it.
The hawks surrounding Trump have been trigger-happy, vis-à-vis Iran for sometime. It’s part of the Israeli-Zionist agenda to give Iran a bloodied nose on the trumped-up charge of its nuclear ambition. However, the firing of super-hawk John Bolton by Trump have, for the time being, dampened the enthusiasm of those in his administration baying for Iranian blood.
In the latest cycle of tit-for tat, an Iranian oil tanker was hit by two missiles, on October 12, close to the Saudi coast. The Saudis quickly washed their hands off it but murmurs of protest from Tehran did convey a sense of distrust of the Saudis.
Venturing into such a void is not a fool’s errand, and Imran is expected to know how sensitive is the task he has undertaken.
But the question is, is he doing it on his own or doing someone else’s bidding?
When he met Trump, last month in New York on the sidelines of UNGA, Imran is believed to have been accosted by the American leader to intercede with the Iranian leadership on his behalf and explore the prospects for a dialogue between him and Iranian leaders. The Pakistani news media was agog with a raft of speculations and conjectures that Trump had invoked Imran’s good offices with Iran while himself shying away from playing any proactive role between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.
Trump is responsible for triggering this crisis of trust with Iran by arrogantly reneging on the US commitment the Iran nuclear deal negotiated by Obama in 2015. But knowing how damaging a war with Iran would be to US interests—he couldn’t care less of what colossal damage Iran is capable of piling on American vassals among the oil-rich Arab Sheikhdoms of the Gulf—he seems to be seeking help from the likes of Imran Khan to damage control.
Could it also be the Chinese asking King Khan to don the peace-maker’s mantle?
Well, it isn’t such a far-fetched idea. After all, China is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil but has lately been bothered by the punishing and biting US sanctions against Iran. China has recently pulled out of a commitment to a joint venture with Iran, worth 5 billion dollars, to develop a gas field in Iran. But China wouldn’t like to see the flow of Iranian oil drying up for it because of America’s unstinted feud with Iran, which makes China an unwitting victim.
Imran was closeted with President Xi in Beijing last week and may have been asked by his Chinese mentor to do a bit of bailing out for Beijing.
Pundits are also pontificating that MBS, the all-powerful Saudi Prince ruling the roost in the kingdom while his effete father only formally fills the throne, also approached IK to get him a line across to Tehran to defuse the snowballing crisis. MBS is on record telling CBS’ 60-Minutes interviewer of him that a shooting war between Iran and his country would be devastating for everyone and should best be avoided. Pakistan, with open lines to Washington, Riyadh and Tehran is ideally placed to play the matchmaker.
But Imran can’t be unmindful of the risks involved, not so much about the success or failure of his mission but, much more, of its blowback on Pakistan itself.
It’s conventional wisdom in Pakistan that the country has been a battleground of sectarian tension, if not deep-seated animosity, between the followers of Saudi brand of Wahabism and the votaries of Iran among its minority Shiias. The tussle, often bloody, has been there ever since the emergence of an Islamic and revolutionary Iran. The Shiias of Pakistan have seen themselves empowered and emboldened by a Shiia-clergy-led Iran next door. Their new-found empowerment has made them vocal and demanding, something abhorred by the Wahabis who thought they had a lock on Pakistan, especially since their role in the successful Afghan Jihad against the Russian invaders of their land.
As such, Imran Khan will have to factor in all these pieces of the jigsaw puzzle into his mediation or, what he may prefer to call, facilitation to patch up the plethora of differences between Riyadh and Tehran.
Imran may be ideally suited to play this role, but Pakistan has a lot of baggage of history to keep forever in perspective while their ‘facilitator PM’ goes through the paces of his arduous mission.
History binds Pakistan more closely to Iran than it does to Saudi Arabia. Our cultural, linguistic, traditional heritage is tied firmly to Iran; the only other country that can claim the same status is arch-enemy India. This is not to mention that Pakistan also shares a thousand-mile long and, in the obtaining ground reality, highly sensitive land border with Iran.
However, over the past forty-odd years our ruling elite has assiduously tried to foster a narrative of Pakistan’s ideological and faith identity with KSA. The Ziaul Haq era is credited with inventing this narrative of Pakistan having its ideological moorings in the Arabian Peninsula.
Ironically, however, Ziaul Haq was astute enough to steer clear of any partisan role for his country during the currency of Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988. That’s a leaf Imran will be well advised to borrow.
The bottom line is that Imran has a very tough call. Donning the peace-maker’s mantle is the easier part of the equation; delivering on the challenge thrown into his lap will demand statesmanship skills that he doesn’t have by training but, hopefully, will learn in the course of the exercise undertaken by him.
It’s only an understatement that Imran will be walking on eggshells as ‘facilitator’ in a feud so dee-rooted and of such gargantuan proportions. He will have to move gingerly at every step of the way. There are trap doors aplenty to test his ‘freshman’ skills of a statesman.
But if he can pull it off and produce a rabbit from his hat the next Nobel Peace Prize will have Imran’s name written all over it. - K_K_ghori@hotmail.com
(The author is a former ambassador and career diplomat)