Diplomatic tensions in the Middle East and South Asia have reached a boiling point following Israel’s September 9, 2025, airstrike targeting Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar, and a scheduled high-stakes meeting between Pakistan’s civilian and military leadership and U.S. President Donald Trump at the United Nations General Assembly. The events, unfolding in rapid succession, have raised urgent questions about military alliances, sovereignty, and the shifting balance of power in a region already beset by instability.
According to a translation published by MEMRI on September 16, 2025, Pakistan’s influential Urdu-language daily Roznama Islam described the Israeli strike as a watershed moment for the Muslim world. The editorial, headlined “A Strong Defense Alliance Of The Muslim Countries Is Essential,” called for a united military and intelligence front among Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan. The newspaper, known for its Islamist and nationalist leanings, argued that “those nations who are still relying on the United States should understand that they will keep being used to serve American interests and when the American interests are threatened, they too could become scapegoats.”
The editorial’s urgency was underscored by the words of Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif, who, as quoted by Roznama Islam, stated, “he is confident the blood of the martyrs of Palestine will not go waste and that the reaction against Israel will continue to grow throughout the world.” Asif further highlighted that Pakistan’s own recent military victory against a “country five times larger than itself” (a reference to the May 7-10, 2025, war with India) was due not only to technology but to the indomitable spirit of the Pakistan Army—a quality he suggested was lacking in the Arab states.
One of the most alarming revelations from the editorial was the failure of Qatar’s advanced U.S.-made air defense systems to detect Israeli missiles during the strike. Qatar’s Foreign Minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Aal-Thani, reportedly admitted that the system did not pick up the incoming threat. The editorial questioned, “Does this mean that the U.S. arms-manufacturing companies have programed their weapons in such a way that they do not identify Israel as an enemy state?” This technical failure, coupled with the U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claim that Qatar had been informed of the attack in advance (contradicted by Qatari officials who said the warning was too late), has triggered a diplomatic dispute and raised doubts about the strategic reliability of Western alliances.
“This incident, as Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has pointed out, is a clear warning that the purchase of military equipment is not merely a trade deal. It also creates political and strategic dependencies that, in times of crisis, may safeguard the interests of the seller rather than you [the buyer],” the editorial continued. The repercussions have been felt throughout the Gulf, with Arab analysts asking what sovereignty means if a state hosting the world’s largest American military base cannot prevent a foreign military operation in its own airspace.
Meanwhile, the diplomatic chessboard is shifting in New York, where Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif is set to meet President Trump on September 25, 2025. According to Moneycontrol, this meeting—facilitated by Qatar and Saudi Arabia—will also be attended by Pakistan’s powerful Army Chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir. The inclusion of Munir, who also commands Pakistan’s intelligence apparatus, is seen as a rare but telling signal of the military’s dominance over the country’s foreign and security policy. “The very presence of Munir alongside Sharif at such a high-level bilateral meeting reinforces what many observers have long argued: Pakistan’s civilian government is a facade for military decision-making,” Moneycontrol reported.
The agenda for the meeting is broad and fraught with complexity: from Pakistan’s ongoing flood crisis to the fallout of Israeli actions in Qatar, and, crucially, the simmering tensions with India following the May 2025 skirmishes. President Trump has claimed credit for brokering peace between India and Pakistan, a claim New Delhi has firmly rebuffed, insisting that the ceasefire resulted from direct military-to-military communication rather than American intervention.
Trump’s approach to Pakistan has been notably warmer than that of his predecessors. He has already broken protocol by hosting Munir at the White House, a move that paved the way for a new U.S. trade package for Pakistan. The deal includes preferential access for Pakistani oil exports and exploratory agreements over mineral resources in Balochistan—a province long plagued by insurgency and human rights abuses. These developments have been celebrated in Islamabad as diplomatic victories engineered by the military, further cementing the perception that Pakistan’s generals, rather than its elected leaders, are calling the shots.
For India, these maneuvers are deeply unsettling. The prospect of U.S.-backed investment in Balochistan and enhanced military ties with Pakistan evoke memories of the Cold War era, when American aid was seen as underwriting Islamabad’s destabilizing actions in the region. With U.S.-India trade negotiations stalled and relations fraying over tariffs, New Delhi fears that Trump’s embrace of Pakistan’s military could embolden Islamabad at a precarious moment.
Back in the Gulf, the Israeli strike on Hamas in Doha has fundamentally shaken Qatar’s role as a mediator in the Palestine-Israel conflict. The editorial in Roznama Islam argued that “this betrayal against Qatar is not just a diplomatic set-back, it is also an open message to all Arab countries that rely on the United States and its allies for their security.” It cited an Israeli official as saying, “We are reshaping the Middle East according to our own rules so that the Jewish state remains secure,” warning that other Muslim countries could soon find themselves in Qatar’s position.
The editorial’s conclusion was unequivocal: “Arab states must now admit that reliance on weapons supplied by Western countries cannot guarantee their true sovereignty. For their security and future, the Arab countries need to develop a new and self-reliant strategy.” It called for immediate steps to enhance defense and intelligence cooperation among Qatar, Turkey, and Pakistan, and urged Muslim countries to rely on their own strength rather than external powers.
As the world watches these developments, the stakes could hardly be higher. The collapse of trust in Western security guarantees, the resurgence of military-driven diplomacy in Pakistan, and the threat of further escalation between India and Pakistan all point to a region on edge, where alliances are shifting and the old rules no longer apply.
In this rapidly changing landscape, every move—whether on the battlefield, in diplomatic corridors, or behind closed doors—carries consequences that may reverberate far beyond the region for years to come.