Air Defence System Live Firing Exercise 2024, Sonmiani, Balochistan. Photo Pakistan X Security Forum ,
By Manish Anand
New Delhi, January 19: The fire power show between Iran and Pakistan has ceased. Pakistan has resumed diplomatic relations with Iran. China appears to have brokered the peace between the two Islamic nations.
A high level meeting on security chaired by the caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar gave a stamp of approval to return to normal ties with Iran. The forum on the outcome of the meeting “expressed that Iran is a neighbourly and brotherly Muslim country and existing multiple communication channels between the two countries should be mutually utilised to address each other’s security concerns in the larger interest of regional peace and stability.”
Before Islamabad announced a truce, Iran had launched drone-based missile attacks in the Balochistan province of Pakistan reportedly to target the two bases of terror outfit Jaish al-Adl. Pakistan too launched airstrikes in the Balochistan province of Iran a day later. Incidentally, identical numbers of casualties were reported from both the sides.
While there was no official mediation between the two warring Islamic countries to call the truce, strategic affairs commentator Sabena Siddiqui told Al Monitor that “China has the most to lose if the conflict between Iran and Pakistan continues”. Incidentally, China is heavily invested in Pakistan through its Belt and Road Initiative, and some of the Pakistani experts claim that the Islamic nation has accumulated over 30 per cent of the foreign debt with Beijing origin. At the same time, China and Iran share close relations with Beijing enjoying extraordinary economic heft in Tehran.
The security forum of Pakistan underlined the outcome of the meeting by stressing that “the participants were briefed about political and diplomatic developments bearing upon the prevailing situation between Pakistan and Iran and its impact on the overall security milieu in the region. The Forum also took stock of the ‘Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar’, which was successfully executed against Pakistani originated Baloch terrorists residing on the ungoverned spaces inside Iran.”
A security analyst Umar Karim told Al Monitor that “Pakistan was always pushed by the Gulf to take a hardline on Iran, which Pakistan didn’t do. The Gulf wouldn’t want to see this continue. However, it must be relieved to see the conflict stabilized.”
While Pakistan and Iran are close allies of China, the two Islamic nations expanding the war theatre seemingly threatened to derail the strategic interests of Beijing. The security analysts believe that Pakistan even while having been caught with pants down as Iran rained missiles inside its territory showed that it could return the fire due to the strength of the Air Force, which in turn could have distracted Tehran from stretching the strength of Israel.
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