In an interview with Al Arabiya News, U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump promised that, if elected, he would work with Saudi Arabia to foster peace in the Middle East specifically, and globally in general. Trump claimed that if he were president, there wouldn’t have been attacks on Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, nor the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war.
What happened in Afghanistan, he said, is disgraceful. Meanwhile, at the BRICS Business Forum opening in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted Saudi Arabia’s offer to mediate peace talks with Ukraine. Saudi Arabia holds a highly significant place in the Arab world, and the acceptance of its mediation by a superpower like Russia is a major milestone.
If Trump is re-elected—a possibility that seems to be growing—the outcome of Saudi-Iran ties could result in a consequential role for Saudi Arabia. In fact, Saudi Arabia is set to become highly significant in the region between December this year and March next year. Putin’s acceptance of Saudi mediation in the Ukraine issue is not without reason; he foresees that the Middle East is about to undergo transformative changes. In this context, the longstanding frost between India and Pakistan may start thawing at an accelerated pace.
The reason behind this is that after the fall of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, Pakistan’s strategic importance dwindled in the eyes of both the United States and India. Some argue that Pakistan was originally created after the partition of the subcontinent to serve as a counter to the Soviet Union. Thus, Pakistan became a safe haven for Afghan and international jihadists. Washington devised and spread religious curricula within Pakistan to train Mujahideen who willingly sacrificed their lives in service to the U.S. against the Soviet Union. Al-Qaeda, Afghan Mujahideen, Pakistani-Afghan Taliban, and ISIS were all products of American strategies. The U.S. invested heavily to transform these forces into jihadists, considering them valuable assets that it would never abandon. American think tanks studied Islamic history meticulously, and reimagined the ‘Khawarij’ sect of early Islam in the modern form of terrorism.
I still remember that, in my childhood, the 1857 War of Independence was taught in our curriculum as a ‘rebellion.’ However, Hindus and Muslims united in this war against the British, who subjected countless Hindus and Muslims to executions as punishment, tying them to cannons. Despite this, the British had taken power from Muslims, not Hindus. The British feared the unity of Hindus and Muslims; they knew that if their alliance wasn’t broken, both groups could drive the British out of India. However, the British had arrived to exploit India’s resources for centuries to come.
Thus, through cunning strategies and conspiracies, they ended the unity of Hindus and Muslims along lines of religion, language, and race. During the partition of the subcontinent, over a million people—mainly from Punjab—were killed, creating an enmity that endures to this day. In a rushed and premature division, especially in Punjab, an awful tragedy unfolded, drawing a bloody line between Sikhs, Muslims, and Hindus that is still almost impossible to cross today.
More than 60 members of the U.S. Congress recently sent a letter to President Joe Biden, demanding the release of Imran Khan and other political detainees. Note the timing of this letter: the day after it was written, Bushra Bibi’s bail was granted. You may recall that months ago, I marked the final quarter of this year as critical for Imran Khan. Why? The current crisis in Pakistan began with a cipher in March 2022. The first low point was in March-April 2024, followed by a second in July-August, and now the most critical phase is between mid-November and the third week of December. In these months, you will witness the magic of numerology.