Uncertainty over Chabahar

The re-imposition of US sanctions against Iran will have a direct bearing on the fate of the Indian-backed Chabahar port complex. If the project — largely seen as a rival to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) though Iran has tried its best to dispel the image and invited other players including Pakistan to be part of it — is scrapped as a result of the sanctions it will deal a critical blow to efforts being made to prop up Afghanistan’s economy. Chabahar was more than a lifeline for Kabul. It could otherwise have acted as a key transportation corridor for landlocked Afghanistan and may well have paved the way for millions of dollars in trade. Pakistan is the obvious beneficiary of the Chabahar setback as the project would have reduced Afghanistan’s much-vaunted dependence on Pakistan.

The irony will not be lost on the world that the very country that had vowed to rebuild the war-ravaged economy of Afghanistan is also the same country that will be endangering a key goal of the US strategy to bring down the curtain on America’s longest war. As usual, Trump has been caught in a self-defeating trap of his own making.

As one of the least-talked about effects of President Donald Trump’s decision to penalise financial institutions for doing business with Tehran after unilaterally revisiting the nuclear agreement, the move has already made banks jittery over the prospect of being hit with sanctions. Their nervousness may have already jeopardised further progress on the port complex. This is one Trump decision that Pakistan will not need to complain about or regret because it will force India in particular to rethink its strategy and conceive a new route for India-Iran-Afghanistan business if that is entirely possible. Advantage Pakistan!

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2018.

Like Opinion & Editorial on Facebook, follow @ETOpEd on Twitter to receive all updates on all our daily pieces.