A highly anticipated three-day summit of Islamic countries that Malaysia is hosting later this week was dealt a blow on Tuesday after Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan pulled out – purportedly under pressure from Saudi Arabia . The office of Malaysia’s Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in a statement said Khan had telephoned the 94-year-old leader to express his regret at not being able to attend the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019. The statement did not explain why Khan was withdrawing – the Pakistani leader had been touted as having thought up the idea of an expanded summit with Mahathir last year – but said the new event was not meant to replace the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). In a visit over the weekend to Saudi Arabia that Islamabad described as part of “regular exchanges”, Khan met the powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. The murder of Altantuya Shaariibuu and allegations against Malaysia’s former PM Najib Razak Multiple Pakistani media reports said Saudi Arabia had leaned on Khan to rethink his participation because of the perception that the KL Summit was meant to replace the OIC, which is traditionally dominated by Riyadh. The summit “is a non-governmental organisation initiative, supported by the Malaysian government and is not intended to create a new bloc as alluded to by some of its critics”, the statement by Mahathir’s office said. “The summit is not a platform to discuss about religion or religious affairs but specifically to address the state of affairs of the Muslim ummah [community].” The summit is set to feature keynote speeches by Khan, Mahathir, Qatar’s Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Saudi Arabia’s King Salman was invited but had declined to participate in the forum. In a soft launch event for the summit last month, Mahathir said the meeting was being held despite the existence of other larger platforms such as the OIC as he believed in “small beginnings” to solve the problems facing the Muslim world. Late on Tuesday the Malaysian leader told reporters he had held an urgent video conference with King Salman to reassure him that Malaysia had no interest in undermining the OIC. “We are too small. I explained to him that we are too small to do that,” Mahathir was quoted as saying by local media. Lawyer for Malaysia’s former PM Najib Razak says hitman’s claim ‘laughable’ Mahathir said the monarch spelled out why he was not participating in the summit. “[King Salman] holds a different opinion from us. His opinion is that it will be better if such matters are discussed in a full OIC meeting. But we are conducting this summit with [the heads of governments of] three countries only. So, that is his reason,” he said. The Malaysian premier said he told King Salman that Malaysia would fully cooperate with Saudi Arabia and other Muslim countries when a full OIC meeting is held. He said Khan’s cancellation was due to “other issues”, and denied that the Pakistani premier had come under pressure from Riyadh. Speculation had been rife about Saudi Arabia’s ambivalence over the KL Summit, especially because the leaders of Iran and Qatar – two of its key regional rivals – are among the top leaders slated to speak at the event. Malaysian foreign minister Saifuddin Abdullah on November 19 visited Riyadh to meet his counterpart Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud and deliver a letter from Mahathir. The veteran prime minister’s predecessor Najib Razak fostered close ties to Saudi Arabia during his 2009-2018 stint in power, but that relationship raised eyebrows because Najib – currently on trial for his links to corruption at the 1MDB state fund – said billions of ringgit in his personal accounts that were central to the case were in fact “political donations” from the Middle Eastern kingdom. In contrast, while Mahathir has hosted Saudi Arabian officials since he came to power last year, he has not visited Riyadh. Last week, he visited Qatar at the invitation of Sheikh Tamim. Saudi Arabia and its allies the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt in June 2017 cut ties with Qatar and imposed a blockaded on it over claims that the tiny oil rich kingdom was a sponsor of terrorism – which Doha denies. There have been signs of a thaw recently, and the Qatari foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani on Sunday told CNN the kingdom had “broken the stalemate of non-communication to starting a communication with the Saudis”. Malaysia revives 1MDB-linked mega project as it strengthens economic ties with China In the case of Iran, the Islamic republic and Saudi Arabia have long been bitter rivals, with their feud partly fuelled by religious differences. Saudi Arabia is the world’s leading Sunni Muslim nation and is home to the faith’s two holiest sites, while Iran is largely Shia Muslim. Mustafa Izzuddin, a researcher of Malaysian foreign policy, said the Southeast Asian country had sought to realign the Najib-era closeness to Riyadh by engaging more with Turkey, Qatar and Iran but had “miscalculated the deep geopolitical divisions that exist in the Muslim world”. Despite Malaysia’s efforts to convince Saudi Arabia that the KL Summit was not meant to replace the OIC, “the Saudis have not been convinced and see its regional leadership in the Arab world and in the OIC in particular as being challenged and undermined”, said Mustafa, a research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s Institute of South Asian Studies. “Although the summit will continue to take place despite the pressure exerted by Saudi Arabia and its allies, it is unlikely to be an agent for change and influence and [will likely be] difficult to sustain, possibly even resulting in this summit being a one-off event.”