Iran-Pakistan
Relations within the Framework of Regional Competition
The inauguration of the Trump
administration in January 2017 has begun to affect geopolitics of Middle
East. Unlike his predecessor, Obama, who
advised the regional countries to reconcile with Iran, President Trump believes
that Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism, have hands in every problem in the
region. In order to contain Iranian threat in Trump administration has tended
to improve partnership with conventional American allies in the region. These
developments have energized the Saudi Arabian campaign against Iran. Recently,
Prince Mohammed B. Salman, then Deputy Crown Prince and Defense Minister stated
in a TV interview on May 2: "We are a primary target for the Iranian regime.
We won’t wait for the battle to be in Saudi Arabia. Instead, we’ll work so that
the battle is for them in Iran.” He argued that there is no room for dialogue
with the Iranian regime. Iran heavily reacted to the statement of Prince
Salman. Iranian Defense Minister Hussein Dehqan threatened Saudi Arabia: "If
they do something stupid, we
will leave nowhere untouched apart from Mecca and Medina."
The growing tension between
Iran and Saudi Arabia has affected not only the Mashreq and the Persian Gulf,
but also the 'wider Middle East.' Pakistan is one of the countries that are
highly vulnerable to these effects. Bordering with Iran, Pakistan used to have
close relations with Saudi Arabia for long years. But the growing tension
between Tehran and Riyadh forces the Pakistani government to face tough
choices. On the one hand it tries to develop good relations with Iran for
economic concerns, on the other hand it is concerned with antagonizing Saudi
Arabia by getting closes to Tehran. In this context, recently there have been
two eye-catching developments in Iran-Pakistan relations. First one is the
escalation of clashes between the regime opponents and security forces in the
province of Sistan and Baluchistan, adjacent to the Iran-Pakistan border. Secondly,
former Pakistani Chief of General Staff Raheel Sharif's has taken the command
of the Islamic Military Alliance Against Terrorism, which is established under
the leadership of Saudi Arabia.
The
Baluchistan Question
Despite having considerable
mineral reserves, Sistan and Baluchistan province, located on the border of
Pakistan and on the southeast of Iran, is one of the least developed regions of
the country. These regions is considered as challenging in terms of security
since it is regarded as functional route for smuggling, drug trafficking, human
trafficking coming through Afghanistan and Pakistan. Additionally, the majority
of people living in the region is Baluchi. There are some reactions against the
Iranian government among the Baluchis, who are numbering around two million,
speaking the Baluchi language, and mostly Sunnis in terms of denomination. Moreover, there is a considerable Baluch
population living next to the Iranian border in Pakistan. This fact makes the
Iranian government more anxious with regard to this region. After 2003, the
region has witnessed the rise of Militant Salafi movements that have carried
out armed attacks targeting Iranian security forces and officials. The most
known among these movements is the Jundallah organization led by Abdolmalek
Rigi. It is claimed that, over the past decade, Iran has lost around three
thousand guards in the armed clashes that took place in the region for
different reasons.
The Baluchistan question
constitutes one of the important subjects in the Iran-Pakistan relations.
Iranian officials repeatedly blamed Pakistan, who is dealing with its own
"Baluch question", for allowing activities of organizations fighting
against Iran. It is known that Pakistan helped Iran in February 2010 to arrest
Jundallah's leader Rigi, who was executed later. The execution of Rigi, led to
the dissolution of Jundallah, which led to the emergence of new militant organizations.
One of these new organizations is called Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) under
the leadership of Abdolrahim Mollazadeh, whose alias is Salahuddin al Farooqui.
Having an anti-Shia position, Jaish al-Adl claims to fight against
"Rafidas" and the "Safavid regime". This organization that
has been settled in Pakistan territories has been targeting Iranian border
guards since 2013.
Jaish al-Adl claimed
responsibility for an attack that killed ten border guards patrolling
Iran-Pakistan border in the Mirjaveh region, on 26 April 2017. The assailants
fired at soldiers with long barreled guns at the zero point of border and fled
into Pakistan soils after the incident. This attack led Iranian reaction
against Pakistan for it did not "fight effectively against terrorist
groups and armed bandits in its territory," and that it did not take
necessary measures on border security. Shortly after the attack, Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani penned a letter addressing Pakistan's Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif, in which he asked that perpetrators of the attack to be arrested
and handed over to Iran. Soon after then, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif
visited Islamabad on 3 May, met with Pakistani senior officials and asked for
increased security measures at the border. Pakistani authorities assured Zarif
that the necessary measures, including the deployment of additional troops in
the region, would be taken.
Despite the assurances of Islamabad,
Iranian military officials continued to make statements targeting Pakistan. In
his speech on May 8, M. Bagheri, Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces argued;
"Unfortunately, Iran's
eastern border regions with Pakistan have become a safe haven for training and
equipping terrorists recruited by Saudi Arabia and supported by the United
States."
He asked Pakistani officials to control the borders, arrest the terrorists and
shut down their bases. “If the terrorist attacks continue, we will hit their
safe havens and cells, wherever they are!” he said.
Sharif’s
Command of the ‘Islamic Military Alliance’
Armed attacks on Iran originated
from Pakistan territories are partly responsible for the rise of tension
between Islamabad and Tehran. Another reason for the tension is the improvement
of military and security cooperation between Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. As a
matter of fact, Iranian officials have been accusing Saudi Arabia for provoking
minorities and supporting armed groups against the Iranian government. Additionally, it is also claimed that the Saudis
have organized and supported the Baluch rebels, while the Pakistan government
has glossed over it. Hence, Pakistan's growing security partnership with Saudi
Arabia may be considered as the root cause of heavy Iranian reactions against
Pakistan.
Military cooperation between
Pakistan and Saudi Arabia dates back to the 1980s. Thousands of Pakistani
officers have already provided "consultation" services to Saudi
Arabia. As an extension of the Pakistan-Saudi Arabia cooperation, former
Pakistani military members were recruited into Bahrain security forces to
suppress the upheavals in Bahrain in April 2011. Today, nearly thirty percent
of the Bahrain security forces are reportedly consisted of Pakistanis.
Nonetheless, the alliance between two countries was shadowed in 2015. Saudi
Arabia that militarily intervened in Yemen in March 2015 in response to Houthi
takeover, asked Pakistan to support the Saudi military coalition through providing
warplanes, warships and troops. Pakistan, which at that time tried to develop
its relations with Iran and fought against militant organizations within its
country, remained neutral on the Yemen issue and did not provide any military
support to Riyadh. However, the Pakistani government declared that it would
take side with Saudi Arabia in case of a direct threat to its security. It is
claimed that the absence of Pakistan is responsible for the weakness of the
coalition.
Although Saudi Arabia did not
receive any support from Pakistan in the Yemen war; it pressured over the
Pakistani government to participate in the Islamic Military Alliance against
Terrorism established in December 2015. Finally, it is announced in January
2017 that Pakistan's former Chief of General Staff Raheel Sharif was appointed
as the commander of the 41-member alliance headquartered in Riyadh. Following
the approval of Pakistani authorities in early April, Sharif moved to Riyadh. Iran,
excluded from the Islamic Alliance, has been disturbed by this appointment. While
talking to the Pakistani press on April 4 Mehdi Honardost, Iranian ambassador to
Islamabad said, "this issue needs an explanation." Having noted that the
Pakistani government informed Iranian authorities before giving an approval to
Shariff's appointment, "this does not mean that Iran accepted this
decision," Honadost stated. Pakistani officials have tried to ease Tehran
by arguing that General Sharif’s appointment does not carry hostile intentions
against Iran. “The
Islamic alliance is against terrorism, not any country,” Pakistani Foreign Minister
Tehmina Janjua stated by emphasizing that Pakistan will not go against Iran’s
interests. Defense Minister M. Asif also underlined that Pakistan's role in
alliance will be within the Saudi borders and will not take a role in Yemen.
It is difficult to say that
Iran and Pakistan are enjoying good relations in general, as the Iranian Ambassador
Honardoost acknowledged. However, both Pakistan and Iran want to develop
bilateral relations due to some economic and strategic interests, and in the
last couple of years they have taken remarkable steps in this respect. Mutual high-level
have taken place between the two countries, which addressed issues such as promoting
the trade volume to five billion dollars within five years, completing Iran-Pakistan
gas pipeline and making it operative, and the involvement of Iran in “China-Pakistan
economic corridor.” Nevertheless, both the increasing armed attacks on the
Iran-Pakistan border, and the rising tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia make
Pakistan to face with difficult choices.
Bayram Sinkaya
Translation of 'Bölgesel Rekabet ve İran-Pakistan İlişkileri,' Ortadoğu Analiz, cilt 9, sayı 80 (Mayıs-Haziran 2017), http://orsam.org.tr/files/OA/80/15_bayramsinkaya.pdf
