While the atmospherics of Zarif's first visit after the new government's advent seem good, there is a need to revisit why relations with Tehran deteriorated or at least showed signs of strain over the past decades. Pakistan's earlier close relations with Iran when the Shah was on the throne obviously could not endure in the same manner after he was overthrown by Khomeini's revolution in 1979. That revolution soon revealed its fundamentalist bent under the rule of the Ayatollahs, which some Arab neighbours and other regional Muslim states regarded as a threat to their security on a sectarian basis. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been leading the charge on this basis that Iran intends to spread its sectarian ideology throughout the region and the wider Muslim world. Time and calmer reflection however has shown the hollowness of this idea. Neither can Tehran have dreamt of a Shia 'conquest' of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim world, nor has it ever expressed any such desire. However, its concerns at best were to protect the interests of Shia minorities in Pakistan and elsewhere in the region. Further, Iran has stood firm against Israel and its cruelties against the Palestinians, while helping anti-western regimes like Bashar al Assad's Syrian one against western-backed attempts at regime change. This has obviously placed it in the anti-Saudi camp. That is the ticklish rub for Pakistan. Islamabad's incremental closeness to Riyadh since the 1970s has caused concern in Tehran and produced over time and now for the PTI government the challenge of conducting a balancing act between its ties with Iran on the one hand and Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies on the other. Former CoAS General Raheel Sharif's controversial assuming command of the Saudi multi-country military alliance has increased suspicion in Tehran about Pakistan's regional intentions. PM Imran Khan is on record as having expressed reservations regarding our role in this military coalition, perceived widely as an anti-Iranian one. That may have been one factor in Zarif's hurrying to Islamabad. But there are also various bilateral issues that require attention. Since last year, Pakistan and Iran have been cooperating on border security to prevent attacks from Pakistani soil on Iranian forces in the Sistan-Balochistan province bordering our Balochistan. Despite these efforts, only the other day another attack by the Jundullah group, said to be based in Pakistan, led to the killing of four militants and the wounding of three by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who have themselves in the past been the target of Jundullah's cross-border activities. More needs to be done if Jundullah is to be prevented from throwing a spanner in the works of Pak-Iran relations. Further, the stalled Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has fallen a victim to global (now US unilateral) sanctions. This experience underlines the difficulties in forging economic cooperation with neighbouring Iran when it is subject to restrictions in trade, investment, etc., because of the sanctions that have already dented its currency and economy and threaten to cripple it after November 4, 2018. Pakistan will have to tread carefully and delicately to balance its ties with Iran against its ties with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and avoid any negative fallout of the sanctions against Iran.
While the atmospherics of Zarif's first visit after the new government's advent seem good, there is a need to revisit why relations with Tehran deteriorated or at least showed signs of strain over the past decades. Pakistan's earlier close relations with Iran when the Shah was on the throne obviously could not endure in the same manner after he was overthrown by Khomeini's revolution in 1979. That revolution soon revealed its fundamentalist bent under the rule of the Ayatollahs, which some Arab neighbours and other regional Muslim states regarded as a threat to their security on a sectarian basis. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been leading the charge on this basis that Iran intends to spread its sectarian ideology throughout the region and the wider Muslim world. Time and calmer reflection however has shown the hollowness of this idea. Neither can Tehran have dreamt of a Shia 'conquest' of the overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim world, nor has it ever expressed any such desire. However, its concerns at best were to protect the interests of Shia minorities in Pakistan and elsewhere in the region. Further, Iran has stood firm against Israel and its cruelties against the Palestinians, while helping anti-western regimes like Bashar al Assad's Syrian one against western-backed attempts at regime change. This has obviously placed it in the anti-Saudi camp. That is the ticklish rub for Pakistan. Islamabad's incremental closeness to Riyadh since the 1970s has caused concern in Tehran and produced over time and now for the PTI government the challenge of conducting a balancing act between its ties with Iran on the one hand and Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies on the other. Former CoAS General Raheel Sharif's controversial assuming command of the Saudi multi-country military alliance has increased suspicion in Tehran about Pakistan's regional intentions. PM Imran Khan is on record as having expressed reservations regarding our role in this military coalition, perceived widely as an anti-Iranian one. That may have been one factor in Zarif's hurrying to Islamabad. But there are also various bilateral issues that require attention. Since last year, Pakistan and Iran have been cooperating on border security to prevent attacks from Pakistani soil on Iranian forces in the Sistan-Balochistan province bordering our Balochistan. Despite these efforts, only the other day another attack by the Jundullah group, said to be based in Pakistan, led to the killing of four militants and the wounding of three by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, who have themselves in the past been the target of Jundullah's cross-border activities. More needs to be done if Jundullah is to be prevented from throwing a spanner in the works of Pak-Iran relations. Further, the stalled Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline has fallen a victim to global (now US unilateral) sanctions. This experience underlines the difficulties in forging economic cooperation with neighbouring Iran when it is subject to restrictions in trade, investment, etc., because of the sanctions that have already dented its currency and economy and threaten to cripple it after November 4, 2018. Pakistan will have to tread carefully and delicately to balance its ties with Iran against its ties with Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and avoid any negative fallout of the sanctions against Iran.