Whatever decision Islamabad takes on joining the Saudi campaign against the Houthis, the cost is likely to be steep.
How do you turn down someone who has given you $1.5 billion, discounted oil, and sanctuary when your enemies were calling for your head? That’s the dilemma Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif faces. His government needs to respond to Saudi Arabia’s request for troops, warships and airplanes in its military campaign against the Iran-backed Shia Houthi rebels who have taken over large parts of Yemen. The campaign, which began on March 25, is the latest escalation in an increasingly violent tussle for regional supremacy between Saudi Arabia and Iran, who happen to be on opposing sides of a sectarian divide within Islam. Their proxy war is already taking place in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, and now with Yemen it has just become deadlier.
Yemen ousted its long-time dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh during the Arab Spring in 2011. And like other Arab countries, it has struggled to come up with a replacement. A weak Saudi-backed government put in place after Saleh’s ouster struggled to provide basic services to Yemeni citizens and incurred the ire of the Houthis, who wanted greater participation in the political process.
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