A new alliance

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It is difficult to know exactly what to make of the 34-nation military alliance against terrorism that has been announced by Saudi Arabia. At least in Pakistan, there was some surprise in bureaucratic and diplomatic circles to find that we were included in the alliance and government officials said that they only found out about it from media reports. The alliance was announced at an unusual news conference in Riyadh, where Saudi Deputy Crown Prince and Defence Minister Mohammed bin Salman revealed a military alliance of Muslim countries, which included Pakistan.