As Bibi addresses Congress, the Saudis play a more subtle game on Iran

posted on: Mar 3, 2015

As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu plays center stage at the Congress this week to slam the Iran deal-in-the-making, the Saudis are playing a more subtle game.  King Salman bin Abdulaziz has summoned the Pakistani prime minister, Nawaz Sharif, to Riyadh. The highly unusual and urgent public invitation is being linked to “strategic cooperation” against Iran in the Pakistani press. Salman visited Islamabad a year ago as crown prince and gave Sharif a $1.5 billion grant to reaffirm Saudi-Pakistani strategic accord.

The speculation in Islamabad is the King wants assurances from Sharif now that, if the Iran negotiations produce either a bad deal or no deal, Pakistan will live up to its longstanding commitment to Saudi security. That is understood in Riyadh and Islamabad to include a nuclear dimension. Salman apparently wants Sharif’s assurance reaffirmed before the end of March.

Sharif also visited the Kingdom in January of this year. He was told that then-King Abdallah was at death’s door, and he came to pay his respects and meet with Salman before the King passed. No other leader was given this advance notice, another sign of the critical importance of the Saudi-Pakistani axis.

Source: www.brookings.edu