Resetting ties with Tehran

Iran faces international sanctions in the wake of the US pullout from the 2015 nuclear deal

Iran is faced with growing economic challenges due to the return of international sanctions in the wake of the US pullout from the 2015 nuclear deal. With India shying away from fulfilling its investment pledges, including those for the expansion of Chabahar port, Iran looks for diplomatic partners in the region to sympathise with its woes. India’s US-centric re-positioning with Iran appears to have forced it back to Pakistan, its next door neighbour and a natural ally. Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif arrived in Islamabad on Thursday for a two-day visit. Zarif held detailed talks with Pakistan’s Foreign Minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who reiterated that ‘Pakistan stands with Iran in this hour of need’.

Pakistan and Iran have historically enjoyed friendly relations. The Shah of Iran was the first head of a foreign country to visit Pakistan. But a lot changed with the Iranian revolution in 1979, and Pakistan began to drift away from Iran to other Middle Eastern countries. While we never antagonised Iran, our ever-strengthening relations with Saudi Arabia did come at the cost of our ties with Iran. The year 2016 saw a kind of friction creeping in between the two countries. The arrest of Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was attempting to cross into Balochistan province from Iran, raised Pakistan’s concerns. The same year, India signed a series of 12 MoUs with Iran, centering around the Chabahar port, locking the two countries into a strategic partnership. The growing Indian interest in Iran served as enough a caution for Pakistan. Hence, the loss of warmth on the Pak-Iran ties.

With the November 4^th deadline — by which India and other countries have to cut oil imports from Iran to ‘zero’ as desired by the US — looming, Islamabad and Tehran find themselves looking for ways to rediscover their not-so-long lost love.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 1^st, 2018.

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