Quote:
Originally Posted by Louied
Someone correct me if I’m wrong but IIRC didn’t the Saudi’s hire a whole Division of Pakistani’s (or have a treaty with Pakistan to provide a whole Div) around the time of the First Gulf War 1990/91
|
Not quite but there is some truth to this.
Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have had a close military relationship since the 1960's. Both governments claim that its due to their shared majority Sunni Muslim religion, but Saudi money and oil also play a big part. Pakistan advisors and pilots have served in the Saudi military since the late 1960's, but the first large Pakistani troop deployment to Saudi Arabia dates to 1979. After fundamentalists seized the Grand Mosque in Makkah in 1979 in the wake of the Iranian Revolution, Pakistani special forces were sent to Saudi Arabia to participated in operation to eliminate fundamentalist elements. Later during the Iran-Iraq war up to 15,000 Pakistani troops were stationed in the Kingdom to boost its security. Some of them were part of a brigade positioned near the border with Israel and Jordan. Most left after 1988 but during the First Gulf War in 1991 up to 13,000 Pakistani troops and 6,000 advisers were based in Saudi Arabia. Pakistani forces frequently have participated in joint military exercises inside Saudi Arabia and Saudi cadets have been trained at various academies in Pakistan. The Pakistani Military has repeatedly reiterated that the security and physical integrity of Saudi Arabia are equally important as that of its own. The close ties were tested in 2015 when the Pakistani parliament rejected a Saudi request for Pakistani troops to support its Yemen campaign. But Pakistan still provided some naval assistance early in Saudi’s Yemen operations, and since then the two militaries have conducted joint exercises.