by B. R. GOWANI
Speech to Overseas Pakistanis
From April 13 to 16, 2025, First Annual Overseas Pakistanis’ Convention was held at Jinnah Convention Centre (JCC) in Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital city.
Most important events in Pakistan are incomplete without the presence of the COAS (Chief of the Army Staff) Asim Munir, the current COAS, was in attendance. He is the first Hafiz army chief (memorized the Quran) and is also a Muslim communalist. In May, after the four-day war between India and Pakistan, the government promoted Munir to the rank of field marshal. Some Pakistanis sarcastically quipped Munir should be named “Qaid-e-Azam” or “Great Leader,” the honorific by which Pakistan’s founder M. A. Jinnah is known. Pakistan’s The Express Tribune editorial praised Munir that he deserved it for ensuring “Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and for his courageous defense.” This was absurd exaggeration of a minor conflict. Victory or perceived victory always benefits the ruling elite, hence, the army image got a boost in the Pakistan Gallop poll where 93% respondents said their view of the army had changed positively.
On April 15, Munir addressed overseas Pakistanis (OPs) in a fiery fanatical speech. Before, during, and end of the speech, the audience erupted in applause and shouting slogans such as “Long Live the Pakistan Army,” There were also chants of: “What is the meaning of Pakistan — la ilaha illa -llah’ or There is no god but Allah,” “Long Live Pakistan.”
Ayesha Siddiqa, an expert on the army, observed:
“It has made the general stronger than any other previous generals. He is a hero now.”
“It’s an Islamist general [Munir] versus [Modi] a religious strongman.”
(Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is a Hindu communalist and a very vengeful person who instructs various government agencies to hound journalists and human rights activists. One of them is Teesta Setalvad. Her crime: she has doggedly pursued Modi, under whose watch Gujarat riots happened where most victims were Muslims.)
Praising OPs
Munir began by thanking overseas Pakistanis for the sentiments expressed for the armed forces. He told them they are the “ambassadors,” “warriors,” “soldiers,” and “light of Pakistan which shines in many countries of the globe.” He also touched on their love for Pakistan in the form of investments and remittances.
Munir conveniently avoided the mention of all the Pakistanis who died on the seas or crossing borders, as many of them couldn’t make it in their own country or had desired a better life. They tried for a better way of life, but couldn’t make it and were swallowed by the seas. They couldn’t be the “ambassadors,” “warriors,” “soldiers,” and “light of Pakistan;” thus were lost in the dark depth of the oceans. (In June 2023, more than 300 Pakistanis drowned off the coast of Greece when an overcrowded fishing trawler sank. While Crossing the Atlantic Ocean, 44 Pakistanis died in January 2025. At least 16 died off the coast of Libya in February 2025.)
“Superior”
Munir called OPs “our beloved” and reminded them that they resided in countries with “different civilizations and cultures,” but that they should always remember that Pakistan’s ideology and culture are “superior.” This kind of racist mentality in leaders has always led to discrimination and violence towards minorities and people who are different. Modi is doing the same thing to minorities in India.
One can wonder why didn’t Munir asked overseas Pakistanis to cancel their return tickets and enjoy the homeland’s superior culture and ideology. But Munir knows stoppage of remittances and investments would further screw up the country.
Brain-drain
Then he sarcastically questioned those who say “brain-drain” is happening in Pakistan: Munir asked: is it not the “brain-gain” that’s occurring? This is twisted Munirian logic where brain drain = brain gain! He added, “if this is the brain-drain, then we would like to continue this brain-drain indefinitely.” At least, Munir accepted his real desire– the almighty dollar should keep flowing into the country.
Every now and then, Pakistan asks the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and China to renew previous loans or asks for more loans. Pakistani leaders, including Munir, regularly go to Saudi Arabia and UAE to kiss the leaders’ asses for a billion or couple of billion dollars. So, of course, he would want Pakistanis to stay overseas indefinitely and remit dollars till they depart from this world.
Communalist mentality
Munir wants OPs to tell their children how Pakistan was created, their forefathers beliefs and sacrifices so even the fourth or fifth generation OPs remember it:
“Our forefathers thought that we are different from the Hindus in every possible aspect of life. Our religion is different. Our customs are different. Our traditions are different. Our thoughts are different. Our ambitions are different.”
“… we are two nations, we are not one nation.”
Almost 78 years after Pakistan’s creation, with population of over 95% Muslim, why was it necessary to bring up the two nations rhetoric? By the way, it is actually three nations now: Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan.
In 1971, West Pakistan army’s atrocities, rape, and war on East Pakistanis, provided India an excuse to enter the war to aid East Pakistan, resulting in the formation of Bangladesh: the Indian subcontinent’s third country.
For more than one thousand years, Hindus and Muslims had lived together. It was only after M. K. Gandhi‘s religious ideas that penetrated politics on a national scale thus allowing secular M. A. Jinnah, a couple of decades later, to use Islam and demand a separate homeland: Pakistan. Britain ruled India, then and divided it into Pakistan and India. (Ironically, it was Britain who had consolidated the patchwork of kingdoms that existed before 1947 by direct or indirect rule into the nation of pre-partition India. Before the British, the Mauryan empire 321–185 BCE was able to control most of the Indian subcontinent and almost 1900 years latter, the Mughal dynasty achieved that feat.)
Jinnah’s vision was a secular Pakistan for people of all religions, as well as, non-religious people.
Munir talked about religious difference between the Muslim-majority Pakistan and the Hindu-majority India. But then, weren’t over 80% of the East Pakistanis Muslims too? The Pakistan army indulged in mass butchering of Muslims (and Hindu minority). Where was the Muslim brotherhood then? Muslim and Hindu women were raped on a large scale. Muslim women were raped to implant Islamic seeds because many of the Bengali Muslims were not considered proper Muslims in the eyes of the West Pakistan ruling class, due to their cultural affinity with India’s state of West Bengal.
(Over 14% of India’s population is Muslim. East Pakistan had more than 18% Hindus, but since becoming Bangladesh, the percentage of Hindus has dwindled to 8%.)
In his two nations speech, Munir touched upon customs, traditions, thoughts, and ambitions of Muslims, which he said were different than Hindus. Culturally, East Pakistanis identified more with the bordering Indian state of West Bengal, than their compatriots 1,000 miles away. Muslims from north and west parts of India who migrated to West Pakistan in 1947 were linguistically, culturally, and one should add, in thoughts and ambitions too, closer to their Hindu, Sikh and Christian counterparts in the Indian states they were forced to leave.
About the present: when Munir next visits the US to pay obeisance to his masters, should visit OP work places and small retail businesses to see Pakistanis and Indians (Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Sikhs, and Christians) employing each other or being employed by each other. Many of them, without religious distinction, think about big money and some are also ambitious to reach the heights of Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and other billionaires. Of course, there are many hardcore Modi supporters from India and many extreme Pakistani nationalists, too.
Munir should think of the Hindu and other minorities in Pakistan, about 2%, who already live in fear, and how much more his speech would frighten them. About 1,000 Hindu and Christian girls are converted to Islam annually and are married to their abductors. In Sindh, a rogue leader politician Mian Mitha is involved in lot of conversion cases.
Tariq Ali states that Munir is unique among the top Pakistani dictators:
“The address was clearly designed to make clear to wealthy overseas Pakistanis that the Army runs the country. Some in the audience must have been hired to give standing ovations to the Army Chief’s unprecedentedly crude, uncouth and ignorant remarks. I cannot recall a single military dictator of the country ever speaking in such a fashion. Sandhurst-trained General Ayub Khan was bland and secular. General Yahya Khan was highly entertaining when drunk and avoided public appearances. General Zia-ul-Haq was a religious sadist, but desperate for a deal with India; denouncing Hindus was not his style. General Musharraf was essentially secular, relatively cultured and very keen on a rapprochement with India.”
In Pakistan, the army had been attacked for a long time, especially by Imran Khan’s supporters on social media. Imran Khan, who came to power with military blessing in 2018, was removed in 2022 by the military when he tried to be independent of them. Khan has been in prison since mid-2023 despite the fact that he is the most popular politician in Pakistan. Like Munir, Khan is obsessed with Islam. He talked of turning Pakistan into “Riyasat-i-Madina,” the city where Prophet Muhammad settled after his introduction of Islam in Mecca, and where his religion was not accepted by the majority of Meccans.
There is no deity but Allah
Like former US president George W. Bush, Munir may have had a revelation from God when he disclosed there are two states created in the name of Kalima (Shahada): first one was “Riyasat-e-Tayyiba” (or Riasat-i-Madina) and, 1,300 years later Allah created Pakistan. This idiocy is not new. In the past also he has talked about “Riyasat-e-Tayyiba and Riyasat-e-Pakistan.”
So did Allah create Pakistan and give the key to the army who has sole authority to decide who’ll have to leave the country and who will be allowed to stay. Also, that the army would determine who’ll be out of or in prison at any given time, and who’ll be permitted to speak, or be prohibited, and who’ll loot most i.e., of course, the army.
M. A. Jinnah created Pakistan but Jinnah’s name seems to be anathema to this Islamist, who in his eight minute speech didn’t mention Jinnah even once but he made sure to quote a select couplet from Muhammad Iqbal, who is considered Pakistan’s national poet, who died nine years before Pakistan came into existence.
“Judge not your nation on the criteria of Western nations
Special in composition is the Hashimi Prophet’s nation“
But then Iqbal had also expressed his love for India:
You take the stone idols to contain God
Every speck of the homeland’s dust is holy to me
It is thanks to Jinnah’s Pakistan that Munir got this platform to spew hatred, lies, and baloney.
Jinnah was secular and used to drink, eat pork, donned Savile Row suits, married a Parsi (Zoroastrian) girl Ruttie, and was a totally non-religious person. In the late 1930s, he started portraying himself as a Muslim in public for political purposes.
If we suppose that Allah created Pakistan, the question would be why? Was it so that an army could have a country? If such is the case, why is it that Allah-created Pakistan is forcing out Allah’s believers i.e, Afghan refugees, many born and raised in Pakistan, into Dozakhistan called Afghanistan. Out of less than 4 million Afghan refugees, 845,000 have had to go back since October 2023. Presently, others are also being forced to leave. (It may be noted that, Afghan refugees are a product of the US led war against the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan.) It’s not only the Afghans, Pakistan doesn’t even want to take back 400,000 to 500,000 stranded Pakistanis (Biharis) in Bangladesh since 1971.
By attributing Pakistan’s founding to Allah, Munir seems to be insulting people of all religions in India and Pakistan, who lost lives (one million), all those women whose honor was violated, and all those (ten million) who migrated from India to Pakistan, and vice versa.
Balochistan
Munir challenged the criticism that investors are shunning Pakistan due to terrorism. He conceded that there was a “little bit of terrorism” but terrorists cannot hijack Pakistan’s “destiny” which is “Balochistan” which is “the chandelier of the forehead of Pakistan.”
Terrorism in Pakistan is not a little bit but substantial. The TTP (Tehreek-i-Taliban-e-Pakistan) and other extremist groups commit terrorism with a goal to turn Pakistan into a Taliban-style Afghanistan. On the other hand, the Baloch movements are fighting for their rights, include groups who indulge in terror tactics, because their rights are being completely usurped by the government. They can’t be equated with terrorists because Balochistan is being treated as resource-istan with no benefits to them and without any concern for the welfare or rights of the Baloch people. Those who demand justice are imprisoned, disappear, or eliminated by the militocracy. In a new development, the Islamic State Khorasan Province (IS-K) has avowed war on Pakistan and also on Balochi rebels because IS-K considers their demands for nationalistic programs unIslamic!
Where as TLP (Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan), a religious terrorist outfit, is not treated as such?
The treatment meted out to Balochistan is as a foot slipper rather than a “chandelier of the forehead.”
Munir went in bravado mode: can 1,500 Balochi fighters take away Balochistan from us whom the Indian army of 1.3 million couldn’t “intimidate” and “coerce?”
“Even your next ten generations cannot take [Balochistan]. Allah willing, you will see that we will beat the hell out of these terrorists very soon.”
In less than a quarter century after its creation, Pakistan lost the most populous province of East Pakistan, that is, in just one generation. One wonders if Balochis have the suffering stamina to wait till the eleventh generation to go their separate way if they are not accepted as equal citizens and cannot partake in their province’s wealth. Munir’s threat seems to imply a repetition of the 1971 tragedy. One could only hope Munir is not planning to be a second Yahya Khan. (General Yahya became President in 1969 when general Ayub Khan was forced to step down from the presidency after countrywide protests against his rule. East Pakistan became Bangladesh during Yahya’s rule.)
Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, the former Pakistan ambassador to China, India, the US and head of UN missions in Sudan and Iraq, sums up the suffering of the Balochi people in these words:
“The number of Baloch killed, Baloch crippled and wounded, Baloch tortured, Baloch missing, Baloch families forever traumatized, and the Baloch intelligentsia almost irretrievably alienated has, over the decades, added up to maybe millions.”
Munir labels critics who disparage the army as Pakistan’s “enemy” and declares that “Pakistan needs to be a hard state.” In simple words, more ruthless and violent than it is now.
Quranic injunction
Munir emphasizes: “Isn’t it that there is nothing more truthful than the Quran for us?” Then he quotes Quranic ayat 49:6 (surat al-hujurat), which his religious fervor mislabeled as surat al-ahzab.
“O ye who believe! If a wicked person comes to you with any news, ascertain the truth, lest ye harm people unwittingly, and afterwards become full of repentance for what ye have done.”
corpus.quran.com
Munir further adds: social media, instructs you to forward the message as received, without investigating it. Yes, a lot of false information and outright lies circulate the internet but there is also a great deal of news and factual data.
If someone questions why the hell does Inter-Services Public Relations media productions, belong to the Pakistani army, that produce so many documentaries, telefilms, songs, game shows, TV serials, and reality shows, would it be considered false news? (Long list here.)
Ayesha Siddiqa points out how the army uses propaganda medium to project itself as a transformative force:
“Works like Alpha Bravo Charlie (1998), Ehd-e-Wafa (“Promise of Loyalty,” 2019), and Sinf-e-Aahan (“Women of Steel,” 2021) depict the army as an agent of transformation that lifts civilians from their rural background and transforms them into members of a modern, urban, English-speaking middle class who are still respectful and egalitarian in their approach.”
One of the songs by ISPR is about Indian atrocities in Kashmir, “Please, leave my Valley alone.” It would behoove the ISPR to also make a song where Balochis are asking Pakistan army to leave their homeland.
The military is wasting public money to project its image as Pakistan’s savior, while also making money for itself, while poverty is rampant, 45% people live below the poverty line, extreme poverty has shot up more than three times to 16.5%, coffers are empty, and Pakistan is ranked 168 (lowest among all South Asian countries) <1>, and is placed in the Low Human Development category, in the UN HDI (United Nations Human Development Index) 2025 (p. 16). Will this be considered rumor by the army?
The army runs businesses, bakeries, banks, controls 33% of heavy manufaturing, owns 12 million acres or 4.8 million hectares of public land, would the undesirable above facts be considered by the army to be fake news?
People in Balochistan are protesting Pakistan’s security forces killing of three young Baloch men and concealing their bodies, will it be labelled fake accusations? The authorities harassed the protestors. The bodies were just dumped in graves without shrouds. After great effort by Balochis, they were permitted to exhume the bodies which they then buried with proper funeral rites.
Disrespecting corpses has been a usual habit with the authorities in power. More than two millennia ago, Sophocles’ Antigone underwent the same agony when one of her brothers’ body was not allowed to be buried by King Creon, her own maternal uncle.
One could go on but suffice it to say that Munir is not worried about the idiocies and so called cancer-curing formulas on internet but is deeply concerned, along with his colleagues, about saving themselves from people exposing their looting of public assets and silencing, disappearing, and eliminating critics.
Kashmir
On Kashmir, Munir declared:
“It … is our jugular vein. … And we will not leave our Kashmiri brethren in their heroic struggle that they are waging against the Indian occupation. We have fought three wars for Kashmir.”
Carotid artery is the more appropriate term, than “jugular vein.”
Both India and Pakistan had, for a long time, recognized the LoC (Line of Control) between Pakistan Kashmir and Indian Kashmir. Then on August 5, 2019, Modi revoked Article 370 of the Indian Constitution which had granted semi-autonomous status to Kashmir. It was an extreme and provocative move by Modi to please his Hindutva base at the expense of peace and further alienating the Kashmiris. (Historical background to Article 370 is here.) The Indian Supreme Court upheld the Revocation decision in December 2023, as could be expected under Modi-raj.
Anyways, once the temperature cools down on both sides, the prudent thing would be to discuss reinstating Article 370, increase trade, issue visas, and improve relations rather than both spewing hateful vitriol and nonsense.
Gaza
In his over 515 seconds speech, this Muslim leader had only 13 seconds to spare for Gazans and only two things to say: Pakistan has offered “every kind of support” and have used the “strongest possible words” in support of the Palestinian “Muslims.” Why not include Palestinian Christians and other religious minorities too?
“Every kind” just meant humanitarian aid, not weapons etc. to fight back Israeli forces. “Strongest possible words” are dime a dozen. What is needed are not vague sentences, but some concrete action which could stop the ongoing 20 month genocide.
Munir, along with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and other officials, spent two days in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj and pay homage to MbS. (All of them have attended Hajj before, so it was sheer waste of the poor country’s foreign exchange.) The door of Kaaba was opened for Munir and Shehbaz where they offered prayers for Gazans and Kashmiris and thanked Allah for victory against India.
Munir could have utilized his visit, he could have tried to draw MbS’ attention towards Israel’s expansionist and colonial mindset accompanied by its advanced technology which could prove dangerous for the region and leaders whose policies differ from Israel’s. Munir could have added: It would be better if peace is established in Gaza through ceasefire <2>.
Pakistani actor Taqi Ahmed did something daring. He climbed the Tiger Peak mountain range at 20,000 feet with his eight year old daughter (a first) and displayed the Palestinian flag at the top:
Pakistan is rising
Munir ended his speech by emphasizing that “Pakistan has already started rising” and advised people to conquer the hardship and “chart out” the way “Allah has promised you,” and we’ll attain it.
Allah must have whispered the promise only to Munir because no one else seems to know about this.
Pakistan can soar, only if …
If Munir and the politicians are serious to see Pakistan as a successful nation than certain things need to be done:
Verbal Viagra of any amount is not going to help Pakistan stand on its own feet and no bullshitting about Allah’s promise is going to pull Pakistan out of the mess it is in:
- Curb import of luxury items and thus save the country from borrowing more dollars.
- Try to do business with neighbors and other friendly countries, as much as possible, thru barter system or in each others’ currencies rather than dollars.
- Improve relations with India. (Same advice for India, too.)
- Try to work on TAPI (Turkmenistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan–India) Gas Pipeline which would be beneficial for the energy sector.
- Economic relations usually lead to better relations in other fields and many times lessen tensions.
- …
Secularism: Behave in a secular manner and use secular language in speeches because the country is not the private estate of any one color, ethnicity, gender, class, caste, or religion but belongs to all citizens: believers of all religions, agnostics, and atheists unlike Modi who treats India as a Hindu state.
No PDA: no public display of Allah. Keep Allah, Islam, Muhammad and Quran in your heart which is the safest, warmest, and loveliest place for them — no one can abuse or burn.
Avoid religious theatrics: The generals and politicians must avoid religious theatrics. Before opening mouth, they should think about minorities and how frightened they are when the leaders use religious terms or symbols reminding them that Pakistan belongs to Muslims only. Pakistan has become too Islamized.
Imran Khan was dreaming of turning Pakistan into Riasat-i-Medina; the army put him behind the bars. Now he must be dreaming of turning the prison cell into his Bani Gala mansion. (Size-wise, the prison cell and his mansion are proportionally roughly, equivalent to Medina and Pakistan, respectively.)
Sahir‘s couplet comes to mind:
I had desired the stars and the moon / but the night’s darkness is what I got
In February 2024, the Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz (ex-PM’s daughter and current PM’s niece) stopped on her way to the Punjab Assembly to cover the head of a female security officer whose stole had slipped. If that officer’s head was not covered, that could mean she didn’t want it covered. Maryam should be worried about her duties first. It’s difficult for these leaders to understand they represent the entire country, not just the conservative Muslims they’re trying to please. Maryam is different in her personal life where she doesn’t cover her head and looks natural especially when she joins a singer to sing a Bollywood song. It would be nice if she stayed the same when in public, too.
A shrewd cleric and shrewder politician, JUI-F (Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam F) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, other religious parties, and the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) recently objected to the passing of a long-needed Islamabad Capital Territory Child Marriage Restraint Bill requiring the minimum age for marriage to be 18 and over, calling it “unIslamic.” Pakistan has four provinces (states) and three territories. Sindh is the only other province that passed this law in 2014.
Jinnah once told Tej Bahadur Sapru, a liberal friend and a fellow politician:
“I think I have a solution for the Hindu-Muslim problem. You destroy your orthodox priestly class and we will destroy our Mullahs and there will be communal peace.”
It is well known that for a long time now, the three As, Allah, Army and America have played a major role in putting Pakistan in the state it is in today. It is high time they should go back to their assigned places: Mullahs to the mosques, army to the barracks, and America to take care of its own people working two jobs to survive, and to myriad other problems.
Back to barracks. Munir and his army should go back to the barracks. Their excuse to stay in politics is that civilians can’t handle the country. History shows that it was the army that lost half the country and 55% of the population in 1971, when East Pakistan decided to secede and become Bangladesh.
Abolish blasphemy laws. In Crisistan, Muslim fundamentalists are on the loose and every now and then kill someone in the name of blasphemy or some other religious pretext. That should stop immediately.
Look forward. Try to figure how Pakistan’s problems can be solved in today’s world with present day knowledge and technology rather than fooling people with promise of replicating the Medina of 1,400 year ago. The total population of Medina and Mecca, Pervez Hoodbhoy reminds us, was less than the population of a typical neighborhood in Karachi (Pakistan’s largest city). Today, Pakistan has over 241 million people.
Women. Women need to be treated as equals and must be given equal opportunities in all government departments and private sectors. The Global Gender Report 2025 ranks Pakistan in this regard as being near the bottom of the list.
Speaking at Islamia College for women, Jinnah had stressed the importance of women’s total participation:
“ I have always maintained that no nation can ever be worthy of its existence that cannot take its women along with the men. No struggle can ever succeed without women participating side by side with men. There are two powers in the world; one is the sword and the other is the pen. There is a great competition and rivalry between the two. There is a third power stronger than both, that of the women.“
Education
Education is one of the most important pillars that, if used properly, could put a nation on path to success. The current national literacy rate in Pakistan is a mere 59%, one of the lowest in South Asia. India has 77.70% literacy rate.)
In the small Hunza District of about 53,000 people in northern Pakistan, the highest literacy rate for both male/female is 97%. Women work, run businesses, and also take part in sports. A 17 year old Nadia Shams told AFP (Agence France-Presse) news agency:
“Every village in the valley has a women’s soccer team: Gojal, Gulmit, Passu, Khyber, Shimsal.”
In comparison to other rural areas, Hunza women have made more socio/economic progress that is attributed to high literacy rate. (In comparison, Indian state of Kerala has a 94% literacy rate (male 96.02% and female 92.07%. However, Kerala’s population is about 35,000,000.)
In Pakistan, 36% of children ages 5-16, i.e. 26 million, don’t attend school. The federal budget, covers only 10% education budget-90% is provided by individual provinces. The federal allocation for education has gone down in four years from a minuscule 1.0% to 0.7% of total budget – a 30% cut!
Defense budget was 20% more in 2025-26 compared to last year. The sectors of education, health, social benefits, women and children’s issues, poverty, etc. require more money. The 20% increase should be cancelled with a drastic additional reduction to the army budget.
Imran Khan should be released from incarceration, because keeping him imprisoned is not serving any purpose.
Balochistan needs an economic and political solution rather than threat of beating hell out of Balochis. Release all political prisoners, including Mahrang Baloch. Negotiate a political solution and let them run their economy rather than it being dictated by Punjab, the biggest and most dominant province.
Notes
<1> Other South Asian countries on the UN HDI: Afghanistan is 181. Bhutan is 125, both Bangladesh and India are at 130, Nepal at 145, and Myanmar at 150 are in Medium Human Development category. Sri Lanka at 89 and Maldives at 93 are in the High Human Development. (UN HDI pp 15-16).
<2> MbS doesn’t care about Palestinians, he has to be careful about other Saudis who do. In January 2024, then US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken asked MbS if it would be OK if, after Saudi recognition of Israel, Israel were to enter Gaza Strip occasionally. Not during six months after recognition MbS replied. 39 year old MbS pointed to70% Saudis being younger to him who have been exposed to Palestine through this war.
“It’s a huge problem. Do I care personally about the Palestinian issue? I don’t, but my people do, so I need to make sure this is meaningful.”
He expressed fear for his life and gave Egyptian leader Anwar Saadat’s example who was assassinated for signing peace treaty with Israel in 1977 (by betraying the Palestinian cause and people). A Saudi official described the above part of the conversation as “incorrect.”
B. R. Gowani can be reached at brgowani@hotmail.com