PAKISTAN STRESS IRAN’S STAMINA
Even before the abduction of the border guards, Iran
had been upset by the decision of Nawaz Sharif’s government from Pakistan to
withdraw from its agreement regarding the export of Iranian natural gas to
Pakistan, which was signed under the administration of Asif Ali Zardari. The pretext
was that Pakistan did not have the resources to build its apart of the pipeline
the Iranian side of the pipeline is already finished or very near to
completion. But Tehran also was not thrilled by the closer military cooperation
between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, which clearly was aimed at Iran and could
even have a nuclear dimension.
Terrorist activities against Iran, conducted by
groups operating from Pakistan and to some extent Afghanistan, are nothing new.
Despite Iran’s protests, Pakistan has done little to stop these attacks. The latest
incidents have once again raised tensions in Iran’s relations with Pakistan
over the latter’s lax approach towards terrorist acts against Iran, conducted
from or on Pakistani territory. Tensions over the abduction of border
guards have reached such a point that
some Iranian politicians have called on the government to go inside Pakistan to
rescue its guards if the Pakistani
government refuses to do so. In response, the Pakistani government warned Iran
that it will not tolerate any Iranian incursion into its territory. However in
order to placate the Iranian government the Pakistanis agreed to form a joint committee
with Iran to pursue the fate of the Iranian guards.
As has been its stance in the face of earlier
Pakistani provocations this time too Iran will not risk a military
confrontation with Pakistan or other serious retaliatory action. However if
these latest tensions are not satisfactorily resolved, the downward trend in
Iranian-Pakistan relations is bound to continue.
The steady decline in Iranian-Pakistani relations
over the last 35 years back has deeper causes in the dramatic cultural shift in
Pakistan since 1978 and the coming to power in Islamabad of General Zia along
with the equally drastic change in Iran’s politics and policies after the
Islamic Revolution. By the Mid 1970 heretofore close Iranian-Pakistani
relations had already been strained by Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto policy of chasing
Arab petro-dollars and his turn towards Islam to enhance national solidarity in
the aftermath of the separation of East Pakistani and the creation of
Bangladesh. This drifting apart became clear when Bhutto decided to invite
Libya’s Mummar Gaddafi to the 1976 Islamic Summit in Islamabad although the
Shah of Iran made clear that in that case he will not attend the summit and
despite the fact Iran had supported Pakistan in the latter’s 1971-72 war
against India.
As a result, today the Persian poetry of Dr. Allama
Iqbal is no longer valued in Pakistan and there is an effort to eliminate
Persian words from day to day usage like, the traditional farewell, Khoda
Hafiz, has been changed into Allah Hafiz, because Khoda is the Persian word for
God. The growth of Wahhabi Islam in Pakistan also exacerbated relations with
the country’s Shia minority, which had become more politically active under the
influence of the Iranian Revolution, thus further straining relations with
Iran, which was viewed as supporting Shia activism in Pakistan.
Iran’s ability to respond effectively to Pakistan’s
hostile moves was further restrained by the pan-Islamist tendencies of Iran’s
foreign policy and its desire to retain the fiction of Islamic solidarity. For instance,
this concern prevented Iran from using relations with India to show Pakistan
that its hostility towards Iran would entail costs to Islamabad.
In sum, despite Iran’s latest warnings to Pakistan,
any military action on its part is unlikely and this crisis, too will subside, with
Pakistan offering soothing words but not much of tangible value in the long
term, given Pakistan’s cultural shifts and the financial lure of the Gulf
Arabs, a return to the close relations of prior days in unlikely. However should
Iran resolve its problems with the United States and other Western countries
and end its isolation, Pakistan will have to treat Iran with more caution and
respect.
