Pakistan tackles strained diplomacy in the face of Israel-Iran tension, dreading secessionist and strategic consequences. Islamabad, Pakistan – Pakistan and Iran exchanged missiles into each other’s territory in a short-lived military conflict between the two neighbours in January 2024.
However, 17 months later, after Israel bombed Iran with attacks on the latter’s nuclear sites, and assassinated several Iranian generals and nuclear scientists, Pakistan was swift in denouncing the Israeli move. Islamabad termed the Israeli strikes as violations of Iran’s territorial sovereignty and referred to them as “blatant provocations”.
“The international community and the United Nations have a responsibility to maintain international law, put an end to this aggression right now and hold the aggressor responsible for its actions,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated in a release on June 13.
As Israeli attacks on Iran and Tehran’s counterattacks move into their sixth day, growing tension in the conflict is prompting Islamabad to harbour fears, analysts say, based on its complicated relationship with Tehran and even greater alarm at the possibility of Israeli military air power reaching near the Pakistani border.
The human cost of the runaway Israel-Iran war is increasing. Israel’s strikes against Iran have already caused over 220 fatalities, with over a thousand individuals wounded. In response, Iran has fired hundreds of missiles into Israeli soil, causing over 20 fatalities and widespread destruction of property.
While Pakistan, which shares a 905km (562-mile) border with Iran via its southwestern province of Balochistan, has voiced staunch support for Tehran, it has also closed five border crossings in Balochistan from June 15.
More than 500 Pakistani nationals, mainly pilgrims and students, have returned from Iran in recent days. On Monday, we received back 45 students who were students in different Iranian institutions. Nearly 500 pilgrims also returned through the Taftan border,” Al Jazeera has been informed by Taftan assistant commissioner Naeem Ahmed.
Taftan is a frontier town bordering Iran, located in the Chaghi district of Balochistan, which is well-known for its hilltops where Pakistan’s nuclear tests were held in 1998, as well as the Reko Diq and Saindak mines famous for containing gold and copper deposits.
Pakistan and Iran have blamed one another for sheltering armed militants who carry out cross-border raids on their soil. The latest flare-up was in January 2024, when Iran fired missile attacks into Pakistan’s Balochistan province, supposedly targeting the separatist Jaish al-Adl group.
Within 24 hours, Pakistan had retaliated with strikes, targeting what it claimed were Baloch separatist hideouts within Iranian territory. The neighbours made up after that mini-escalation, and in Pakistan’s mini-military conflict with India in May, Iran carefully stayed aloof.
On Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Ishaq Dar spoke to the Parliament, highlighting how Pakistan had been talking with Iran and indicating that Islamabad would be ready to play a diplomatic role in helping broker a solution to end the Iranian-Israeli military hostilities.
Iran’s foreign minister [Abbas Araghchi] said to me that if Israel doesn’t conduct another attack, they will be willing to sit at the negotiating table again,” Dar said. “We have made it clear to other nations, that there is still time to prevent Israel and bring Iran back to the negotiating table.”.
Interior State Minister Talal Chaudhry said in an interview with Al Jazeera that other countries had to act more to advocate for a ceasefire. We feel we are doing our part, but the world also needs to do its part. Syria, Libya, Iraq – wars ruined them. It even gave birth to ISIS [ISIL]. We hope we don’t repeat this,” he added.
Fahd Humayun, Tufts University assistant professor of political science and visiting research scholar at Stanford, stated that any Pakistani attempt to diplomatically encourage peace would be assisted by the fact that the government of President Donald Trump in the United States is also, at least officially, making the case for negotiations instead of war.
