Pakistan, Iran Say They Will Increase Military Cooperation
Experts say that it will be a very difficult task for Pakistan to convince the friendly countries in the Gulf region that this is a good idea
[Islamabad] Pakistan and Iran have expressed their determination to increase military cooperation.
The Iranian and Pakistani military chiefs of staff held a phone call on Sunday where they agreed to boost military cooperation between their countries, especially along their 565-mile common border.
Major General Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, congratulated General Asim Munir on his recent appointment as Chief of Army Staff in Pakistan.
“Highlighting the impact of cooperation between Iran and Pakistan on security along the shared border, Iran’s top military commander stressed expanding security and defense ties with the neighboring state,” according to the semi-official Iranian news agency Tasnim.
Tasnim also reported that “both commanders also weighed plans for continued cooperation between Iran and Pakistan in ensuring border security, the fight against terrorist groups, the expansion of economic activities in the border regions, and turning the common border into the border of friendship and fraternity.”
Top military officials from both sides also discussed ways to restrain cross-border terrorism and coordinate their efforts for long-lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan.
Earlier, the Iranian state news agency IRNA reported: “Syed Muhammad Ali Husseini, the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, met the new army chief at General Headquarters Rawalpindi along with Iranian military attaché in Pakistan Colonel Mustafa Ghanbarpour.”
IRNA also reported that “during the meeting Pakistan’s new army chief expressed his concern over international sanctions while supporting Iran’s nuclear program.”
Munir also reportedly said during the meeting that there is “much potential for development of relations between the two countries, especially in the economic sector, and we should take advantage of these potentials.”
Only the Iranian media reported on the Pakistani Army Chief’s praise or support for Iran’s nuclear program, while no mainstream media outlet in Pakistan, including the Pakistan Armed Forces media wing, mentioned it.
Military cooperation along a shared border is something that makes sense in a volatile region; the question that the US and GCC countries will have is whether it goes beyond border control
Meanwhile, Munir met on Monday with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The meeting was held a tent in the ancient Saudi city of AlUla.
According to the Saudi Press Agency-SPA, “they reviewed bilateral relations and the ways of enhancing them, in addition to a number of issues of common concern.”
Saudi Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, along with the Saudi national advisor and members of the cabinet also were present during the meeting.
Pakistan’s 560-mile border with Iran runs from the Salih Mountains to Gawadar Bay on the Arabian Sea. Baluchistan, one of Pakistan’s largest provinces, extends across 44% of the country.
Gawadar is the center of the $62 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) pact, part of Beijing’s massive Belt and Road Initiative, an infrastructure project. CPEC is developing the deepwater port of Gawadar, which will be linked to China’s Xinjiang Province.
CPEC projects also cover energy generation, transportation infrastructure and industrial economic zones.
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Since the US invaded Afghanistan, Pakistan’s border areas with Afghanistan and Iran have become a stronghold of extremists. These extremists have targeted thousands of civilians and security personnel in Pakistan by conducting suicide attacks.
The Pakistani Armed Forces, after a long but coordinated battle, destroyed these hideouts.
Pakistan has always maintained that separatist organizations active in the country’s Balochistan province are trained and funded in the border areas of Iran, where the Indian intelligence agency also is active against Pakistan.
Terrorists have targeted the security forces and taken shelter in the border areas of Iran.
Meanwhile, Pakistan has sentenced to death an Indian national for involvement in the province’s unrest.
Kulbhushan Yadav was found guilty by a military court of terrorism and spying for Indian intelligence in April 2017. However, the International Court of Justice stayed his execution the following month at India’s urging, pending a final judgment.
Pakistan claims that Yadav was serving as an Indian naval commander when he was nabbed in 2016.
Islamabad says that “Yadav was residing in the Iranian coastal city of Chabahr and operating a nexus of anti-Pakistan militants.”
The Media Line spoke with some regional experts about the possible enhancement of military cooperation between the two neighboring countries and its regional impact.
Farzana Shah is a Peshawar, Pakistan-based leading defense-security analyst and editor of The Global Conflict Watch, a defense and strategic affairs magazine.
She told The Media Line that “first and foremost, we must define the scope of the term ‘military collaboration between Pakistan and Iran;’ that is, what the ultimate purpose of this cooperation is. If, for example, it is specialized to safeguarding the Pakistan-Iran border, no one in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) should complain.”
Shah also said that “Pakistan’s current economic profile does not allow us to pursue bilateral ties with Iran while disregarding the GCC. In this regard, the visit of the Pakistan Army Chief to Saudi Arabia represents a significant development.”
If Pakistan decides to enter into a military arrangement with Iran, she added, “it must have the confidence of both Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both of these countries may be unhappy if Pakistan contributes to any military capability enhancement for Iranian forces.”
Shah told The Media Line that, intelligence sharing, collaborative border management, and other activities are likely to proceed, but “another factor is US pressure,” which caused Pakistan to withdraw from the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline in the past.
She said that “Pakistan will have to sustain it, but that would depend on the nature of the partnership and its magnitude,” adding that she believes that “the real geopolitical ripples will be made in the marine realm rather than on the ground. If Pakistan and Iran opt to increase military cooperation, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries will undoubtedly disapprove of any Pakistani and Iranian naval activities in the Arabian Sea/Strait of Hormuz.”
“Though Pakistan’s and Iran’s maritime borders have the biggest geopolitical significance in the region, 70% of world oil trade passes through these waterways. The United States will not accept it either,” she concluded.
The news that Iran and Pakistan’s chiefs of staff have decided to increase military cooperation is nerve-wracking. This might cause regional instability and lead to a new arms race or a ratcheting up of hostilities.
Dr. Frank Musmar, a Texas-based nonresident researcher at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, told The Media Line that the “Iranian and Pakistani joint military working group is not a new cooperation or a new development in the relations between the armed forces of the two countries. Both countries have been cooperating on security, especially on the common borders. What is new is using the term ‘defense’ cooperation in the announcement.”
He says that the absence of US troops stationed between both countries after the withdrawal from Afghanistan “encouraged both countries to start thinking of bilateral cooperation in various economic, cultural, political and, lately, defense fields.”
Musmar said that the deal between Iran and Pakistan will include joint naval exercises. The US was prepared for this ahead of time when the it teamed up with Australia, Japan and India to form the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue “to fortify their presence and those of US allies from the Pacific to the Indian oceans to the west, the US Navy still patrols the Persian Gulf as part of the International Maritime Security Construct.”
Musmar also revealed that “considering nuclear cooperation between both countries is not new as well.” He explains that when nuclear negotiations started under the administration of then-US President Barak Obama, “one of the proposals was to make Pakistan the host country for Iran’s nuclear fuel cycle.” He added that “the proposal was for Iran to close down its domestic nuclear enrichment facilities and ship its centrifuges and stockpile of uranium to a facility under the control of the Pakistani army with 24/7 camera surveillance of nuclear inspectors.”
In addition, according to Musmar, “the absence of effective US diplomacy in the region, especially after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, will allow both countries to build upon what was once a proposal from President Obama’s administration to future levels that the US will never be able to contain peacefully or over negotiations.”
Adrian Calamel, a New York-based expert on the Middle East and global terrorism, told The Media Line, that Pakistan “needs to seriously weigh the financial and political implications that would come with helping Iran accelerate the militarization of its nuclear program.”
“We are looking at a nation that is facing serious economic problems and cooperating with Iran on this issue will likely bring unwanted sanctions for violating IAEA laws on proliferation,” Calamel told The Media Line, referring to the United Nations nuclear watchdog.
“Everyone must remember Pakistan got a slap on the wrist when the late Abdul Qadeer Khan was caught allegedly shipping nuclear technology to Libya, Syria, and yes… Iran,” he said, referring to the Pakistani nuclear physicist known as the “Father of Pakistan’s atomic weapons program.”
Calamel also said that “military cooperation along a shared border is something that makes sense in a volatile region; the question that the US and GCC countries will have is whether it goes beyond border control.”
Calamel stressed that “Pakistan should be concerned about Iran’s growing hegemony in the region and the realization of a Shi’a Crescent with Houthi control in Yemen. Not that long ago, the Iranian Safavi Empire controlled large swaths of the Indian subcontinent and today the Islamic Republic of Iran is an expansionist/imperialist power; is this on anyone’s mind in the halls of Islamabad?”
Andy Vermaut, a Brussels-based counter-extremism expert and the president of the World Council for Public Diplomacy and Community Dialogue, told The Media Line that while “it is theoretically conceivable for Pakistan to provide Iran with access to its nuclear expertise or infrastructure, there is no guarantee that it would.”
Vermaut further told The Media Line that “Pakistan is not a party to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and hence is not subject to the same constraints on its nuclear weapons development as Iran.”
“The news that Iran and Pakistan’s chiefs of staff have decided to increase military cooperation is nerve-wracking. This might cause regional instability and lead to a new arms race or a ratcheting up of hostilities,” he said.
Vermaut noted that “Pakistan is a war-torn nation with nuclear weapons. Military cooperation between them might enhance regional instability and threaten the interests of the United States and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).”
