A major embarrassment to Pakistan, Pak Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa returned without even able to meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. He was in Saudi in a mission to re-establish the broken Pak-Saudi relationship, however, denied to have the opportunity to meet the Crown Prince he left after conveying apologies to Maj. Gen. Fayyad al – Ruwaili, the deputy defence minister and Prince Salman’s brother.
The bilateral ties between the Pakistan and Saudi were worsened after Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi issued a warning to Saudi Arabia after the latter refused to act against India over Kashmir issue. Speaking on the first anniversary of revocation of Article 370 by India, Qureshi publicly slammed Saudi Arabia for not backing Pakistan over the issue of ‘organising’ a meeting of the Council of Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers (CFM) on Kashmir in early February 2020.
He further said that unless the OIC convened CFM meeting on Kashmir, Pakistan would be “compelled to convene a meeting of Islamic countries that are ready to stand with it on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiri Muslims”. “Today Pakistan is, who are always ready to sacrifice their lives for Mecca and Madina, need Saudi Arabia to play a leading role on the Kashmir issue. If they are not willing to play that role, then I will ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to go ahead with or without Saudi Arabia,” ANI quoted him as saying.
Bajwa along with Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief had arrived in Saudi Arabia on Monday. Apart from Saudi Arabia, Pakistan also attacked the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for not supporting Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir. Now it is the turn for the army chief to seek apologies from UAE whose response is not yet clear.
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