Of Taliban, Swat Valley, ISI,  and an Afghans Grasshopper: In Pakistan, the real meaning of the deal whereby Pakistan ceded its Swat Valley to the Taliban became clear to most people in the West at the end of March. The images of a teenage girl being whipped in public were, are, a clear reminder of what is likely to come in Afghanistan and possibly the rest of Pakistan. With the Pakistani ISI aiding the Taliban more or less openly again, and possible Saudi money flowing again to their Wahhabi mates, the grasshopper Karzai and his inept government in Kabul have no chance. In the long term, Afghanistan cannot be saved from itself and from Wahhabi Salafi money, except through Pakistan. Pakistan is the artery through which both life and death flow north. Eradicating the Taliban and al-Qaeda south and east of the border is the key to a stable Afghanistan.

If only Lord Mountbatten and his advisers were not in great hurry to leave the Subcontinent in 1947. The Brits have a lousy record when they leave a divided place in a hurry: just look at India and Palestine. Oddly, Lord Mountbatten met his violent fate decades later because of another divided former British colony: this time it was a European colony west of the Irish Sea. He died at the hands of people with blue eyes and yellow hair- in a different sectarian war.

A Persian Hamlet decides: In Iran, former reformist president Mohammed Khatami publicly mulled challenging Ahmadinejad in the June election. He apparently decided to run, before deciding not to run. It would have been an interesting election. Both men had won the office against stronger opponents as underdogs. Khatami may have been the last chance to deny the conservative Ahmadinejad a second and last term, although in Iranian politics anything is possible.

Another futile summit: The Arab leaders held another futile summit, in Doha Qatar. Saudi Arabia and her sidekick Egypt played the good cop-bad cop routine with the Qataris. They are both angry at Qatar’s government for following an independent foreign policy, but the Saudis gave their stooge Mubarak the role of bad cop and he ‘boycotted’ the summit. One octogenarian autocrat attended and another octogenarian autocrat stayed away.

The Qataris had intended to invite Iran’s Ahmadinejad, but the Saudis deployed their vast media, as they deployed Egypt’s Mubarak, and Qatar did not invite the Iranian leader to an ’Arab’ summit. I am not sure why he should attend an Arab summit in the first place. Ahmadinejad did not show up, but an outlaw did show up: Sudan’s dictator for 25 years, wanted for war crimes in Darfur, flew to Cairo, then to Libya, then to some other North African place, before landing in Doha, Qatar. The brotherhood of despots welcomed him in that unique Arab club of dictators, presidents-for-life and absolute tribal monarchs.

Only Iraq’s Nouri al-Maliki did not fit the mold of the rest: he was elected by an elected parliament, and he has to win an election again soon to keep his job- the only such case in the whole Arab world. At times, I thought Maliki looked apologetic, perhaps for not fitting the mold of a life-time dictator, which is the usual mark of a true Arab leader. It was strange to see how Sudan’s outlaw president, an international criminal who had taken power through a coup, seemed to fit nicely among his brethren, while the elected al-Maliki looked like the odd man out. Iraqi media report that the Saudis have refused al-Maliki a state visit, and some hint that it is because he is a Shi'a and heads an elected government- an elected government is a very un-Arab thing to head.

Libya’s Colonel Qaddafi again provided the only entertainment at the summit. He made blistering comments against the Saudi King Abdullah, saying to the king “I want to reassure you that you need not be afraid, and I tell you after six years that it has been proven that it is you who have the grave before you and a pack of lies behind you. It is you who was created by the British and protected by America. And I am willing to visit you or you visit me. I am a world leader and the dean of Arab rulers and King of African Kings, and the Imam of Muslims, and my international stature does not permit me to descend to any other level.” Later the two men met and kissed and made up: no word of how many times the two leaders were frisked for hidden daggers.

Saudi media has gone ape over the Libyan colonel. Some Saudi editors have gone so far as suggesting that the institution of the Arab Summit should be scrapped- at least as long as Qaddafi is around. Except that Qaddafi, in his sixties, is about twenty years younger than any potential Saudi king.

Or perhaps as long as there are leaders who do not toe the Saudi line.

Another embarrassing issue was the presence of the Secretary General of the UN at a meeting attended by a man with an international warrant for his arrest.

Cheers

mhg