US President Donald Trump: Asim Munir, the chief of the Pakistani Army, will meet with Trump for the third time in six months. Is Shehbaz Sharif leaving?
US President Donald Trump: According to news agency Reuters, which cited reliable sources, Pakistan Field Marshal Asim Munir is scheduled to go to Washington in the next weeks for a third meeting with US President Donald Trump in six months.
In Islamabad, this led to new political conjecture. Trump’s frequent contacts with Pakistan’s strong military leader have sparked concerns about Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s future and the nation’s power dynamics.
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Although the meeting’s specifics are yet unknown, observers predict that the primary topics of conversation will be regional security, collaboration in the fight against terrorism, and events in the Middle East, particularly Gaza.
Munir’s unusually frequent interactions with Trump have garnered notice, particularly in light of Pakistan’s political unrest and economic hardship.
Pakistan’s civilian government has always been in charge of diplomatic outreach, but the army chief’s increasing international prominence has stoked rumors of a potential political shift. Regarding allegations that Washington may be supporting a change in leadership, neither the US nor Pakistani authorities have responded. But the gathering has once again brought attention to the military’s hegemonic position inside Pakistan’s political system.
Asim Munir, Pakistan’s most powerful military leader in decades, is facing the most difficult test of his recently acquired authority as Washington presses Islamabad to send soldiers to the Gaza stabilization force, a decision that experts warn might provoke internal reaction.
The Gaza force is expected to be the main topic of the Munir-Trump negotiations, according to Reuters. According to Reuters, the impending development was verified by two people, one of whom was a significant figure in the general’s economic diplomacy.
Trump’s strategy for Gaza
Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza includes for a Muslim-led army to supervise a period of transition for economic recovery and rebuilding in the Palestinian area devastated by more than two years of Israeli military bombing. The mission to demilitarize Hamas, an Islamist terrorist organization in Gaza, has alarmed several nations because it may draw them into the conflict and infuriate their pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli citizens. However, in an effort to mend years of hostility between Washington and Islamabad, Munir has developed a tight friendship with the erratic Trump.
He was rewarded with a White House lunch in June, which was the first time a US president has received Pakistan’s army commander by himself without the presence of civilian authorities. According to Michael Kugelman, Senior Fellow, South Asia at the Washington-based Atlantic Council, “not contributing (to the Gaza stabilization force) could annoy Trump, which is a serious matter for a Pakistani state that appears quite keen to remain in his good graces – in great part to secure US investment and security aid.”