Pak-Iran
relations
Iranian Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif is the first foreign dignitary to visit Pakistan after the
installation of the PTI government. This reflects the fact that Iran is our
neighbour and shares with Pakistan long and deep cultural and historical links.
Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, with
whom Zarif had meetings during his two-day visit, conveyed precisely their
desire to cement these ancient ties and further strengthen mutual cooperation
in fields as diverse as border security, trade, investment and other economic
areas. These sentiments were reciprocated by the Iranian dignitary, who carried
a message of fraternal greetings from Iranian President Hassan Rouhani who had
earlier telephoned PM Imran Khan soon after his assuming office to congratulate
him. The message also contained an invitation to PM Imran Khan to attend the
upcoming Asian Cooperation Dialogue summit in Iran in October 2018. Both the PM
and the Foreign Minister assured Zarif of Pakistan’s unequivocal support in the
troubled nuclear restraint deal Tehran had arrived at with the west in exchange
for the lifting of sanctions. The US has unilaterally withdrawn from the deal,
reimposed sanctions on Iran, and set a November 4, 2018 deadline for a complete
cut-off of Iranian oil purchases by all countries, despite repeated
International Atomic Energy Agency’s reports that Iran has been complying with
the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action agreement in this regard.
While the
atmospherics of Zarif’s first visit after the new government’s advent seem
good, there is a need to revisit why relations with Tehran deteriorated or at
least showed signs of strain over the past decades. Pakistan’s earlier close
relations with Iran when the Shah was on the throne obviously could not endure
in the same manner after he was overthrown by Khomeini’s revolution in 1979. That
revolution soon revealed its fundamentalist bent under the rule of the
Ayatollahs, which some Arab neighbours and other regional Muslim states
regarded as a threat to their security on a sectarian basis. Saudi Arabia and
the UAE have been leading the charge on this basis that Iran intends to spread
its Shia ideology throughout the region and the wider Muslim world. Time and calmer
reflection however has shown the hollowness of this idea. Neither can Tehran
have dreamt of a Shia ‘conquest’ of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim world, nor
has it ever expressed any such desire. However, its concerns at best were to
protect the interests of Shia minorities in Pakistan and elsewhere in the
region (Iraq is the only other Shia majority country). Further, Iran has stood
firm against Israel and its cruelties against the Palestinians, while helping
anti-western regimes like Bashar al Assad’s Syrian one against western-backed
attempts at regime change. This has obviously placed it in the anti-Saudi camp.
That is the ticklish rub for Pakistan. Islamabad’s incremental closeness to
Riyadh since the 1970s has caused concern in Tehran and produced over time and
now for the PTI government the challenge of conducting a balancing act between
its ties with Iran on the one hand and Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies on the
other. Former COAS General Raheel Sharif’s controversial assuming command of
the Saudi multi-country military alliance has increased suspicion in Tehran
about Pakistan’s regional intentions. PM Imran Khan is on record as having
expressed reservations regarding our role in this military alliance, perceived
widely as an anti-Iranian one. That may have been one factor in Zarif’s
hurrying to Islamabad. But there are also various bilateral issues that require
attention. Since last year, Pakistan and Iran have been cooperating on border
security to prevent attacks from Pakistani soil on Iranian forces in the Sistan-Balochistan
province bordering our Balochistan. Despite these efforts, only the other day
another attack by the Jundullah group, said to be based in Pakistan, led to the
killing of four militants and the wounding of three by the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards, who have themselves in the past been the target of
Jundullah’s cross-border activities. More needs to be done if Jundullah is to be
prevented from throwing a spanner in the works of Pak-Iran relations. Further,
the stalled Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has fallen a victim to global (now US
unilateral) sanctions. This experience underlines the difficulties in forging
economic cooperation with neighbouring Iran when it is subject to restrictions
in trade, investment, etc, because of the sanctions that have already dented
its currency and economy and threaten to cripple it after November 4, 2018. Pakistan
will have to tread carefully and delicately to balance its ties with Iran
against its ties with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and avoid any negative fallout
of the sanctions against Iran.
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