As of: January 18, 2024, 5:05 p.m
By: Tadhg Nagel
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There have been clashes on the Pakistan-Iranian border for years.
Now the situation is escalating.
Iran could seize an opportunity.
Islamabad/Tehran - At a time when tensions have risen sharply across the Middle East and beyond, Pakistan and Iran have attacked each other's territory in an unprecedented escalation of hostilities.
The recent Iranian missile attacks on Pakistan and Pakistan's response to them join a long list of incidents on the border between the two neighbors.
Iran would like to limit American influence in the Middle East.
© Iranian Army Office via www.imago-images.de
Pakistan and Iran share a volatile border some 900 kilometers long, with Pakistan's Balochistan province on one side and Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province on the other.
Both countries have long battled militants in the restive Baloch region along the border.
But even though the two countries share a common separatist enemy, it is highly unusual for either side to attack fighters on the other's soil.
This is what the US news portal
CNN
writes .
“Egregious violation” - Iran and Pakistan on the verge of breaking off diplomatic relations
The rapid sequence of events began on Tuesday (January 16) when Iran carried out attacks on Pakistan's Balochistan province.
According to Pakistani authorities, two children were killed and several others were injured.
Iran claims it “only attacked Iranian terrorists on Pakistani soil” and that no Pakistani nationals were affected.
Pakistan called the attack an “egregious violation of international law and the spirit of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Iran.”
Tasnim,
Iran's state news agency, reported that the attack targeted strongholds of the Sunni militant group Jaish al-Adl, known in Iran as Jaish al-Dhulm (Army of Justice).
This militant separatist group operates on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border and has previously claimed responsibility for attacks on Iranian targets.
Their ultimate goal is the independence of the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
Two days later, Pakistan retaliated with a series of “highly coordinated and targeted precision military strikes” on several suspected separatist hideouts in Sistan and Baluchestan.
Pakistan's foreign ministry said on Thursday that a number of militants were killed in the attacks.
Iranian authorities said a series of explosions killed at least seven people - three women and four children.
Now both countries are on the verge of breaking off diplomatic relations.
Clashes on the border are not new - Iran could see war in Israel as an opportunity
Deadly clashes have repeatedly occurred along the turbulent border between the countries in recent years.
After all, it is not new that Iran and Pakistan operate on both sides of each other's borders in the fight against separatists.
What is unusual, however, is the willingness to attack targets beyond the borders without informing the other side in advance.
December 2023:
Jaish al-Adl claims responsibility for an attack on a police station in the Iranian city of Rask in the southeastern border province of Sistan-Baluchestan, killing 11 Iranian security forces.
June 2023:
The Pakistan military's media wing, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), releases a statement saying armed "terrorists" killed two Pakistani soldiers at a checkpoint in the Singwan area of Kech district.
April 2023:
ISPR announces that attackers from Iran killed four border patrol soldiers in Jalgai sector of Kech district.
January 2023:
Then-Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif condemns the killing of four security officials on the border with Iran in Balochistan.
The Iranian embassy in Islamabad also condemned the attack.
September 2021:
Pakistan claims a soldier was killed in cross-border shelling from Iran, blaming "terrorists" in Iran.
April 2019:
Pakistan's former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi says "terrorists" from the Iran-based separatist group Raji Aajoi Sangar attacked the passengers of a bus in Balochistan, killing 14 people.
December 2018
: Four police officers are killed and 42 other people injured in a suicide car bomb attack on police headquarters in Iran's southern port city of Chabahar.
Then-Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif blamed “foreign-backed terrorists,” which was widely interpreted as an accusation against Pakistan.
October 2018:
Twelve Iranian security guards, including intelligence officers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), are allegedly kidnapped on the southeastern border with Pakistan.
Jaish al-Adl takes responsibility for this.
April 2018:
According to the IRGC, three Iranian security forces are killed by armed militants in a cross-border attack on a border post in the town of Mirjaveh in Sistan-Baluchestan province.
June 2017:
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry says the air force shot down an Iranian drone flying in the Punjgur area.
It is the first time that an Iranian drone has been shot down by Pakistan.
April 2017:
Jaish al-Adl claims responsibility for an attack in Mirjaveh that kills 10 Iranian border guards.
Iranian state media reported, citing police officers, that the killings were carried out with long-range weapons and that "the Pakistani government bears ultimate responsibility for the attack."
The latest attacks come as Iran's allies and proxies in the Middle East - the so-called Axis of Resistance - launch attacks on Israeli forces and their allies against the backdrop of the war in Israel.
The conflict may have encouraged Iran to be more proactive in pursuing targets beyond its borders, according to
CNN
.
After all, the United States would be walking a fine line between de-escalating hostilities and using its own military might to prevent further moves by Iran.
“Filling power gaps” benefits Iran - it strives “for regional hegemony”
Through its dominant position in the Middle East in contrast to conflict-ridden countries such as Yemen and Syria, Iran could benefit from regional instability and “filling power gaps,” Karim Sadjadpour, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told the portal.
Iran's activities now served to advance several of its key goals, including empowering Palestinians and countering American influence in the Middle East.
Ultimately, Iran is “seeking regional hegemony,” says Wesley Clark, retired US Army general and former NATO supreme commander, to
CNN
.
“And when the United States and Israel are on the ground and Israel is waging this campaign against Hamas, then Iran feels the need to fight back and assert itself,” Clark continued.
(
tpn
)