Exactly six months ago, on September 17, 2025, Pakistan signs NATO-style defense agreement with Saudi Arabia. No one with a keen eye will miss the unnamed element in the matrix: Iran. With this treaty, the mixed Rawalpindi-Islamabad regime was sleepwalking into the labyrinth of the Middle East. Now the 400 Afghans in hospital have paid the price with their lives.
From day one, it was clear that Riyadh had no chance of entering a war waged by Pakistan, but Saudi Arabia was gunning for it. Pakistan Army – mercenary units — and a nuclear shield. Saudi Arabia has provided billions of dollars in loans to cash-strapped Pakistan, so it can dictate the terms.
Pakistan signed a strategic mutual defense agreement with Saudi Arabia on September 17, 2025. The exact terms of the deal have not been disclosed, but the outlines suggest that an attack on one side will be considered an attack on the other. Pakistan is the only Islamic country with nuclear weapons. If necessary, we will deploy weapons depots in Saudi Arabia.
At home, this could have been used to prove a point. Pakistan was guaranteeing nuclear weapons to the country where Islam’s two holiest cities, Mecca and Medina, are located. However, security guarantees placed Pakistan in the Middle East matrix. Sunni Saudi Arabia is Iran’s biggest rival and a bastion of Shiite power in the region.
“According to sources, Field Marshal Asim Munir told MBS: [Muhammad Bin Sultan] Since the Pak Army is actively participating in the Afghanistan sector, it cannot spare any resources to send to Saudi Arabia. The same source also said MBS had been clued in on Pakistan’s clever plan to activate its border with Afghanistan to avoid committing defense resources,” Francesca Marino, an Italian journalist specializing in South Asia, wrote in X on March 16.
Marino said Saudi Crown Prince MBS “actually called Asim Munir and Shehzad Sharif two or three times to convey his disappointment in this regard.”
February 28th, the same day Iran was attacked and counterattackedSaudi Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman held talks with Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Saudi Arabia’s Prince Sultan Air Base, where the U.S. operates military bases, the U.S. Embassy in Riyadh, oil fields, and energy infrastructure were attacked by Iran.
On March 7, Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman met Pakistan Defense Forces Commander General Sayed Asim Munir in Riyadh.
On March 12, Sharif and Munir met bin Salman in Jeddah. At a meeting held over the Middle East conflict, Prime Minister Sharif pledged “full solidarity and support” to Riyadh.
There was a sense of urgency. Saudi Arabia needed guarantees and more.
“Pakistan has always maintained this principled position in its foreign policy. Pakistan will always support Saudi Arabia when its sovereignty and territorial integrity are threatened,” Ahmad Farooq, Pakistan’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia, told Arab News after the Salman-Sharif meeting.
Asked whether Pakistan would deploy troops or defense equipment in Saudi Arabia, Farooq said: “This is basically a technical discussion; [place] between the military authorities of the two countries.”
The skepticism and questions about Pakistan’s deployment of soldiers and weapons came against the following background. Iran attacks Gulf countries including Saudi Arabia with missiles and drones.
This is a time when Riyadh needs Munir and Sharif to get the talks going. But that will make things messy for both of you at home.
“Both Shahbaz Sharif and Asim Munir have been summoned several times by Saudi Crown Prince MBS to ask Pakistan to comply with the Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement (SMDA). The Saudi Crown Prince is very dissatisfied with Pakistan’s continued non-compliance with the SMDA,” Hamad Siddig, former Afghan ambassador to Germany, wrote in X on March 15.
During Ramadan, the United States and Israel attacked Iran. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killedShiite spiritual leader and supreme leader of Iran Over 160 female students It bridged the Shia-Sunni divide in the Islamic State. Political leaders may be devoted to real politics, but the people have accepted that the Supreme Leader of Islam has been assassinated by the United States and Israel.
If they do not face a direct threat in this war and are seen as allies against Iran, it may be difficult for Munir and Sharif to control domestic volatility. Moreover, with a border of approximately 900 km with Iran, all of Pakistan is within the range of lethal Iranian missiles. Any participation, direct or indirect, will make it a target for Iran, which will direct its anger at its neighbors.
To escape from the Catch-22 situation, Pakistan The border dispute with Afghanistan is heading towards ‘open war’.
The Pakistan-Afghanistan situation has developed as I described in my March 3 article. Why Pakistan Burned Houses Just Before War With Iran. There was no opportunity for Pakistan to launch large-scale air strikes in Afghanistan on February 27. This came a day before the United States and Israel attacked Iran and set the entire Middle East on fire.
Even as the flames of war consumed Saudi Arabia, Pakistan continued to bomb heavily inside Afghanistan. Shab-e-Qadr (Laylatul Qadr) night of Ramzan, considered the holiest day.More than 400 Afghans have died in a hospital in Kabul.
There is no reason for Pakistan to intensify its military conflict with Afghanistan other than the situation in the Middle East. This is a demand to deploy troops and military equipment to Saudi Arabia as promised. That’s what Pakistan did with its February 27 airstrikes. Deny US President Donald Trump his flesh.
“Pakistan is not expected to get involved in Saudi adventures outside its territory, which means it will not fight for Saudi Arabia on the territory of another Islamic country,” independent defense analyst Hassan Askari Rizvi told Russian state news agency Sputnik.
Deploying troops against Iran would be disastrous for Sharif and Munir. Shia make up 20% of Pakistan’s population. Pakistan It has refrained from participating in the Saudi-led campaign against the Houthis. 2015. The Iran-backed Houthi rebels are part of the ‘Axis of Resistance’.
Pakistan asked Iran not to attack Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar later claimed Tehran had acted weakly against Riyadh while pummeling other Gulf countries. Pakistan is reportedly engaging in back-channel diplomacy to cool the conflict between Iran and Saudi Arabia.
“The so-called war with Afghanistan is actually a deliberate distraction for the Pakistani military,” Siddig, an Afghan diplomat, wrote. “They want to create a manufactured conflict with Afghanistan to avoid their Strategic Mutual Defense Agreement (SMDA) commitment to provide military support to Saudi Arabia.”
“this [war] “This is an excuse to justify why we cannot deploy military force to defend Saudi Arabia from Iranian attacks,” Siddig added.
Pakistan is trying to show Trump and bin Salman that it has a war of its own through airstrikes against Taliban-led Afghanistan. that Hundreds of innocent Afghan civilians are currently being murdered. By Pakistan, who is desperately trying to maintain rouge. This should be a wake-up call for countries allied with Pakistan, including the United States and Saudi Arabia. Islamabad benefits from this partnership, but it is only a fair-weather friend.
So after Pakistan sleepwalked into the maze of the Middle East by formalizing its defense commitments with Saudi Arabia, it is the defenseless Afghans who are now paying the price with their lives.
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