THE thought that your plan is perfect, given the amount of thinking that has gone into its making, is delusional because there are factors out of your reach that can blow the best of plans off course.
We were driving to Leeds, UK, for a family commitment. It is about 2,300 kilometres away from where we live in Javea, Spain, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, midway between Valencia and Alicante.
In my relatively younger days, we thought nothing of driving a thousand kilometres in a day. But now, in my not-so-young days, my family does not agree to any plan that involves such long drives. We drive about 600 km at most and make night stops after being on the road for no more than six to seven hours.
Our night stops decided, accommodation booked, we thought we’d be happily on our way. But the French had other ideas. They vehemently safeguard their rights and, despite voting in a Conservative president committed to curtailing public expenditure, resent any cuts that impact their lives, healthcare plans, pensions, retirement age, to name just a few.
So, when their government presented a plan in parliament aimed at addressing what it said was a 44 billion-euro hole in the finances, the first casualty was the prime minister, who was voted out — not the same significance as in our parliamentary democracy, because France’s president is all-powerful, with the power to appoint one prime minister after another, which he promptly did.
America’s unconditional support to Israel is forcing a rethink in the Middle East and beyond.
An impromptu strike call was given by some parties and unions last week, which was partially successful. Then, this past Thursday, all the main unions joined in the strike call and pledged to shut down the country.
Since our arrival date was not flexible and neither was our departure, we decided to drive from our home in Spain to Clermont Ferrand in France, a distance of 1,100 km because we could not take the chance of being stranded due to the strike at our original night stop in Perpignan, just across the border from Spain — a town where Spaniards used to drive to watch films which the censors would block during the Franco dictatorship in their country.
Our amended plan meant staying two nights in Clermont Ferrand, which is home to the famous Michelin Tyres with a huge manufacturing unit and research laboratory situated here. Our drive took us through the picturesque Massif Central via the Norman Foster-designed Millau Viaduct (the world’s tallest bridge), which we saw being constructed when we first drove through the area in 1995. We stayed at one of the motorway (called autoroute in France) hotels for two nights.
After the 10-hour, 1,100 km drive, when we finally got to the room, a shattered me received my good friend and Dawn Magazines editor Hasan Zaidi’s ‘this is huge’ WhatsApp message, sharing a link, carrying the story of Pakistan’s mutual defence agreement with Saudi Arabia.
For as long as I can remember, the two nations have had very close defence ties, with Pakistani troops based in Saudi Arabia in the past for not just training their army but also acting as a reserve force in an internal security role. Even then, I have never read anything nearly as categorical as “an attack on one will be considered an attack on both”.
After Chinese mediation in recent years led to not just de-escalation in tensions between traditional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran, but also declarations of brotherhood, this defence accord can’t really be directed at Tehran.
In fact, it followed Israel’s missile attack on Qatari soil, apparently targeting the Hamas negotiating team said to be discussing a US proposal for hostage release and ceasefire in Gaza. Israel remained unapologetic and said it would again target its enemies wherever they were.
The attack seems to have brought home the realisation to the Arab Gulf leaders that the security umbrella the US extends to their states excludes protection from Israeli aggression as a totally different set of standards govern the conduct of the genocidal apartheid state.
“Pakistani military might, Saudi financial heft to redraw Gulf security map,” read the six-column headline in The News, summing up the development. Whether the Gulf security map would be redrawn via this agreement will become clearer when the details emerge. But it has been signalled that Saudi security won’t rely on a single source, which proved unreliable in Qatar’s case. Qatar was attacked despite being home to the US Central Command’s largest base in the Middle East.
Even the details, if made public, are unlikely to shed light on, for example, a nuclear umbrella for the kingdom. Equally, many Pakistanis would be keen to find out what kind of response the next possible aggression from India on our soil would evoke from Saudi Arabia. India is Saudi Arabia’s second-largest trading partner, while Saudi Arabia is India’s fifth. Riyadh has pledged tens of billions of dollars in investment in India.
But America’s unconditional support to Israel is forcing a rethink not just in the Middle East ; it is leading to realignments beyond as well. Who knows if the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s collective or indivisible security may, in the end, appear more appealing to the wealthy Arab Gulf states than reliance on the US, which has shown it supports Israeli ambitions at the expense of other allies, including those in the Gulf.
In fact, when the Muslim leaders’ emergency meeting in Qatar was calling upon the US to exercise its influence over Israel for a ceasefire in Gaza, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was inaugurating the excavation of a tunnel (an ‘archaeological site’) which will end near the Al Aqsa Mosque and for which many Palestinians have been forcibly evicted from their homes in Jerusalem. Against this backdrop, the US-endorsed Gaza genocide continues, billions around the world who oppose it are powerless to stop it.
The writer is a former editor of Dawn.
Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2025
