Muslim Asia caught in the middle as diplomatic row rocks Middle East (JMD quoted on Reuters)

Muslim Asia

caught in the

middle as

diplomatic row

rocks Middle

East

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By Rozanna Latiff and Syed Raza Hassan | 

KUALA LUMPUR/KARACHI

Non-Arab nations in Asia, such as

Malaysia, Indonesia and Pakistan, are

getting caught in the middle after Saudi

Arabia led a clampdown on Qatar,

accusing the tiny emirate of supporting

pro-Iranian Islamist militants.

Malaysia had rolled out the red carpet

for Saudi Arabia's King Salman at the

end of February, the first by a Saudi

king to Malaysia in more than a

decade. Then, the following month,

Kuala Lumpur signed a defense

cooperation agreement with Qatar.

A source close to the Malaysian

government said that the recent efforts

to strengthen ties with Qatar, including

a visit by the foreign minister last month,

will probably now be put on the

backburner.

"We have more to lose by siding with

Qatar," said the source, who requested

anonymity.

On Monday, a half-dozen countries,

including Saudi Arabia, the United

Arab Emirates, Egypt, and Bahrain, cut

diplomatic ties with the energy-rich

emirate, accusing it of backing Tehran

and Islamist groups such as the Muslim

Brotherhood. Qatar has said it does not

support terrorism and the rupture was

founded on "baseless fabricated claims."

Doha now faces an acute economic plight

as it relies on Gulf neighbors for 80 percent

of its food imports.

The diplomatic clamp down on Qatar is

seen as an indirect jab at Iran, and leaves

non-Arab Muslims countries in an

"uncomfortable position", according to

James Dorsey, a senior fellow at

Singapore’s S. Rajaratnam School of

International Studies (RSIS).

"The Saudis view Iran as the foremost

terrorist threat rather than the Islamic

State and a lot of non-Arab Muslims

countries ... would probably not agree

with that," Dorsey told Reuters.

PAKISTAN'S OFFICIAL SILENCE

Indonesia, Malaysia and Pakistan are

predominantly Sunni-Muslim countries

like Saudi Arabia. Jakarta has sometimes

tried to play a mediating role when

inter-Arab tensions have flared, particularly

between Saudi Arabia and predominantly

Shi'ite Muslim Iran.

Jakarta's Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi

received a phone call from Iran’s Foreign

Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on

Monday who wanted to discuss the rift,

Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha

Nasir said.

Indonesia has called for reconciliation and

dialogue in the latest diplomatic clash.

The dilemmas are particularly acute for

nuclear-armed Pakistan, which has the

world's sixth-largest army and the largest

military in the Muslim world.

Sunni-majority Pakistan maintains deep

links with the establishment in Riyadh,

which provided Prime Minister Nawaz

Sharif with political asylum after he was

ousted in a 1999 military coup.

But with a large Shi'ite minority and a

shared western border with Iran, Pakistan

has a lot to lose from rising sectarian

tensions. In 2015, Pakistan declined a

Saudi call to join a Riyadh-led military

intervention in Yemen to fight

Iranian-allied insurgents.

Pakistan has maintained official silence

about the latest rift in the Arab world,

loathe to be seen taking sides between

Saudi Arabia and Iran. Pakistan also has

close ties with Qatar itself, including a

15-year agreement signed last year to

import up to 3.75 million tonnes of

liquefied natural gas a year from the

emirate, a major step in filling

Pakistan’s energy shortfall.

“Pakistan has to act very carefully. In

my opinion, there is only one option for

Pakistan: to stay neutral," said retired

army Brigadier Shaukat Qadir, now an

independent risk and security analyst.

ISLAMIC MILITARY ALLIANCE

Pakistan’s recently retired army chief,

General Raheel Sharif, traveled to

Riyadh in April to lead the Saudi-led

Islamic Military Alliance. The stated

mission of the multinational alliance

is to fight terrorism but it is increasingly

seen as anti-Iran.

“There are rumors flying around that

Raheel Sharif is pulling out of the

Saudi-led military alliance. I hope they

are true and he comes back soon,” said

Qadir.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

in January 2016 visited both Riyadh and

Tehran along with Shariff, who was then

the army chief, in an attempt to bridge the

deepening chasm.

Relations between Malaysia and Saudi

Arabia have been in the spotlight over the

last two years after Saudi Arabia was

dragged into a multi-billion dollar corruption

scandal at Malaysian state fund lMDB,

founded by Najib.

Najib has denied any wrongdoing in the

money-laundering case which is now being investigated by several countries including

the U.S, Switzerland and Singapore.

During King Salman's visit to Malaysia,

Saudi oil giant Aramco [IPO-ARMO.SE]

agreed to buy a $7 billion equity stake in

Malaysian state energy firm Petronas'

major refining and petrochemical project.

But Qatar has also invested between $12

billion and $15 billion in Malaysia,

according to media reports.

RSIS' Dorsey said non-Arab Muslim

countries like Malaysia would be "put on

the spot" if the Saudis demand that its

trade partners pick a side.

"They (Malaysia) can say either I do

business with you, or say I'm not going to

make that choice. Then the question would

be how would the Saudis or the UAE

respond to that," Dorsey said. "But we're

not there yet, and there's no certainty that

it will get there."

(Additional reporting by John Chalmers,

Joseph Sipalan, Kay Johnson and Fergus

Jensen; Editing by Bill Tarrant)