Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani recently in a telephone contact with Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan called for Islamabad’s decisive action against anti-Iran terrorists. “We must not let decades of friendship and fraternity between the two countries be undermined because of the actions of terrorist groups, the sponsors of whom we are aware of.” He added, “We must not let third parties affect relations between Iran and Pakistan with these actions.”
There is little optimism about the possibility of Iran-Pakistan cooperation in the fight against terrorism or what is known as Islamic radicals with Wahhabi orientation in Pakistan. The reason is that the Pakistanis claim to be willing to cooperate but in practice they have adopted a dual policy on this issue. Particularly, the Pakistani Military Intelligence Agency (ISI) looks at radical Islamic groups as a strategic tool.
From the perspective of the ISI, these are jihadist forces with two distinct functions; one in Kashmir with the goal of annexing Kashmir to Pakistan, and elsewhere in Afghanistan to prepare the ground for installing an American satellite or at least coordinated government with Washington in Kabul. Accordingly, Pakistan is very unlikely to quit this strategy until it achieves these goals.
In any case, with regard to the cooperation of Iran and Pakistan, it can be said that the two countries are more coordinated about the radical Baluchi groups. It is so because part of Baluchistan is in the hands of Iran and part under the control of Pakistan. There are two groups in the region: first, nationalist groups active in Pakistan seeking to disband the Baluchistan province. Baluchistan province accounts for about 47 percent of Pakistani soil, and although it has not a large population, the vast territory is very significant for Pakistan.
Another group that operates in this region is radical Islamic forces. The problem that exists between Tehran and Islamabad is about groups that are of Iranian nature but united with radical Islamic groups inside Pakistan or radical groups such as ISIS and al-Qaeda.
In fact, the Pakistani army uses this Islamic force as a means to control the separatist nationalist movement. In Kashmir it uses Lashkar-e-Taiba (Army of the Righteous), Harakat al-Mujahedeen (Movement of the Holy Warriors) and Jaishe Mohammad (Army of Mohammad) against the Indian Army; in Afghanistan they use the Taliban, the Haqqani Network and other groups against Kabul; and inside Baluchistan, they use radical forces such as Jundallah (Army of God) against separatist nationalist forces.
Meanwhile, there are ideological links between groups that are opposed to Iran and Pakistani groups, and because there is no distinction. Although the Pakistanis promise to firmly deal with terrorist groups, but they cannot cooperate with Tehran in this regard properly. There have been exceptional cases such as the case of Abdulmalek Rigi whose forces were involved in clashes with the Pakistani army; as Pakistan felt that the group has come out of its control, it cooperated with Iran in arresting Rigi group members.
Of course, Iran and Pakistan, in general, have close to 1,000 kilometers of joint border in Baluchistan, and it is very important for both sides to provide security in this region.
From another perspective, if we look at the issue of Iran and Pakistan, we will see that Saudi policies are very important because Riyadh’s regional policies in cooperation with Israel and the United States are somehow in line with the political and economic blockade of Iran.
Because Saudi Arabia has invested heavily in radical Islamic movements, and in most religious schools in Pakistan, an informal educational system has been injected by Riyadh.
In fact, Saudi influence through religious schools is expanding, which could be a warning to Iran while Pakistan also pursues a policy of support for Riyadh.
On the other hand, the rivalries between Tehran and Riyadh have shifted from political to ideological nature, which has severely overshadowed Iran’s main objective, including Islamic unity irrespective of religion. Therefore, it should be noted that Saudi Arabia has succeeded in terms of psychological propaganda that portrays the slogan of Iran’s Islamic unity discourse as a sectarian policy by Iran. Another point is that, as Saudi Arabia has long term plans, it is pursuing huge investments in Pakistan, including in Gwadar port.
As a result, relations between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia are moving towards strategic ties that could damage relations between Iran and Pakistan in the long run.