Do not make light of Pakistan's attack on Iran

In reaction to the Revolutionary Guards’ rocket attack on Pakistani territory on January 16, in which Tehran claimed to have targeted separatist Baluchis, Pakistan retaliated on January 18 by bombarding what it said to be Baluchi separatists deep into Iranian territory. As such, Pakistan became the first foreign country to openly attack Iran since the end of the Iran-Iraq War in 1988.

The attacks, although ostensibly against the opposing Baluchis in the neighboring country, are in fact a reflection of the larger conflict in the Middle East. They closely correlate with the Israeli war against Hamas and Hezbollah as well as the American and British attacks on the Houthis, and can prove the harbinger of a larger invasion of Iran by its age-old enemies. In this article we will see how that might turn out.

More than anything else, Iran-Pakistan relations have been influenced by the divisions in international order that were created after WWII, and although both countries have almost always been on the same side in this world order, they have never been completely friendly as close neighbors.

During the Cold War, Tehran and Islamabad were both part of the Western anti-communist coalition on the southern margin of the Soviet Union. Their mutual membership in the Western-initiated CENTO and Regional Cooperation for Development was to ensure their alliance against the threat of communist infiltration or invasion. READ MORE