Iran-Pakistan flare-up rooted in restive borderlands, not Mideast strife
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[January 19, 2024]
By Parisa Hafezi, Charlotte Greenfield and Gibran Naiyyar
Peshimam
DUBAI/ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - An Iranian strike on Pakistan this week that
drew a rapid military riposte and raised fears of greater regional
turmoil was driven by Iran's efforts to reinforce its internal security
rather than its ambitions for the Middle East, according to three
Iranian officials, one Iranian insider and an analyst.
Both the heavily-armed neighbours, oftentimes at odds over instability
on their frontier, appear to want to try to contain the strains
resulting from the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent
years, two analysts and two of the officials said.
Iran sent shockwaves around the region on Tuesday with a missile strike
against what it described as hardline Sunni Muslim militants in
southwest Pakistan. Two days later, Pakistan in retaliation attacked
what it said were separatist militants in Iran - the first air strike by
warplanes on Iranian soil since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.
Tuesday's strike was one of Iran's toughest cross-border assaults on the
Sunni militant Jaish al-Adl group in Pakistan, which it says has links
to Islamic State. Many of Jaish's members previously belonged to a
now-defunct militant group known as Jundallah that had pledged
allegiance to Islamic State.
The move deepened worries about Middle East instability that have spread
since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October. Iran-allied militias from
Yemen to Lebanon have launched strikes on U.S. and Israeli targets,
including on Red Sea shipping, in sympathy with Gaza's Palestinians.
It also came a day after Iran launched attacks in Iraq and Syria, which
it said targeted Israeli espionage and Islamic State operations,
respectively.
But the tit-for-tat blows between Iran and Pakistan occurred far from
that war zone, in remote borderlands where separatist groups and
Islamist militants have long carried out attacks on government targets,
with officials in Pakistan and Iran often accusing each other of
complicity in the bloodshed.
Gregory Brew, an analyst at Eurasia Group, an international risk
consultancy, said Tehran's strikes were motivated in large part by
Iran's rising concerns about the threat of domestic militant violence in
the wake of a deadly Jan. 3 bombing claimed by the Islamic State group.
"There's a lot of domestic pressure to 'do something,' and the
leadership is responding to that pressure," he said.
Spokespeople for the Iranian and Pakistani foreign ministries could not
immediately be reached for comment.
'CRUSHING RESPONSE'
Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Iran in protest at Tuesday's
attack. For its part, Tehran strongly condemned Pakistan's strikes on
Thursday, saying civilians were killed, and summoned Pakistan's most
senior diplomat in Iran to give an explanation.
But in their statements, neither government sought to make a link to the
Gaza war or to attacks carried out in support of Palestinians by a
network of Arab militias allied to Iran from the Mediterranean to the
Gulf.
In a public statement on Thursday, the foreign ministry in Tehran said:
"Iran considers the security of its people and its territorial integrity
as a red line" and expects "friendly and brotherly" Pakistan to prevent
armed militant bases on its soil.
For Iran, the trigger for the flare-up was a devastating bombing on Jan.
3 that killed nearly 100 people at a ceremony in the southeastern city
of Kerman to commemorate commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a
U.S. drone in 2020.
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A man watches a news channel on television inside a shop after the
Pakistani foreign ministry said the country conducted strikes inside
Iran targeting separatist militants, two days after Tehran said it
attacked Israel-linked militant bases inside Pakistani territory, in
Peshawar, Pakistan January 18, 2024. REUTERS/Fayaz Aziz
Soleimani, architect of Iran's drive to extend its influence across
the Middle East, was a hero to supporters of the hardline
establishment. Tehran publicly vowed revenge against Islamic State,
the ultra-hardline Sunni Muslim militant group that claimed
responsibility for the bombing.
An Iranian insider close to the country's ruling clerics described
the Kerman bombing as "an embarrassment for the leadership" that had
shown Iranian security to be vulnerable.
Tuesday's strike was aimed at demonstrating the security
organisations' capabilities amid concern among Iranians about a lack
of security in the country, the Iranian insider said.
"Such terrorist attacks will get a crushing response from Iran," the
insider said.
Iran has also arrested dozens of people linked to Islamic State.
On Tuesday, Iranian missiles struck two bases of the Sunni Muslim
group Jaish al-Adl (or the Army of Justice) in Pakistan's
southwestern province of Balochistan, which borders Iran. The
group's ultra-hardline Sunni Islamist militancy is seen as a threat
by Iran, primarily a Shi'ite Muslim country.
A senior Iranian security official told Reuters that Iran had
provided Pakistan with evidence that Jaish al-Adl was involved in
the Kerman attack, coordinating its logistics, and had asked
Pakistan to act against it. Iran had obtained evidence that members
of the group were among a number of militants planning further
attacks in Iran, he said.
"We have warned everyone that any action against our nation, our
national security will not go unanswered," the official added,
speaking on condition of anonymity due to sensitivity of the matter.
IRAN 'LOST PATIENCE'
Iran has been pressing Islamabad for years to address the presence
of militants near its border, Brew said. The missile strikes were a
sign that Tehran has lost patience, he said.
To be sure, Iran continues to see its role and influence in the
Middle East as a central to its security goals.
Brew said that Iran's strike on Pakistan was also intended to signal
its resolve, to both enemies and allies, to defend itself in the
context of the regional crisis over Gaza.
Michael Kugelman, director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson
Center, a Washington-based think tank, said bilateral tension on
border security was a longstanding problem for Iran and Pakistan.
De-escalation would be difficult in the immediate term, "given the
high tensions and temperatures at play", he said.
Neither country appears poised for conflict, however. In public
statements, both countries have observed their attacks were not
aimed at each other's nationals, and signalled they don't want
escalation.
Kugelman said both countries might welcome bilateral dialogue and
potential third party mediation from a country like China, which has
good relations and leverage with both countries. "Diplomacy will be
critical from here on out," he said.
(Editing by William Maclean)
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