Iran-Pakistan flare-up rooted in borderlands

DUBAI/ISLAMABAD — An Iranian strike on Pakistan that drew a rapid military riposte and raised fears of greater regional turmoil this past week was driven by Iran's efforts to reinforce its internal security rather than the so-called ambitions for the Middle East, according to Iranian officials, insiders and analysts.

Both neighbors appear to want to try to contain the strains resulting from the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years, analysts and officials said.

Iran sent shock waves around the region on Tuesday with a missile strike against what it described as hard-line Sunni Muslim militants in southwestern Pakistan. Two days later, Pakistan in retaliation attacked what it said were separatist militants in Iran — the first airstrike on Iranian soil since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War.

Tuesday's strike was one of Iran's toughest cross-border assaults on the Sunni militant Jaish al-Adl group in Pakistan, which it says has links to the Islamic State terror group. Many of Jaish's members previously belonged to a now-defunct militant group known as Jundallah that had pledged allegiance to IS.

The move deepened worries about Middle East instability that have spread since the Israel-Hamas conflict erupted in October.

Gregory Brew, an analyst at international risk consultancy Eurasia Group, said Teheran's strikes were motivated in large part by Iran's concerns about the threat of domestic violence in the wake of a deadly Jan 3 bombing claimed by the IS.

Pakistan recalled its envoy from Iran in protest of Tuesday's attack. Teheran strongly condemned Islamabad's strikes on Thursday, saying civilians were killed, and summoned Pakistan's most senior diplomat in Iran to give an explanation.

But in their statements, neither government sought to make a link to the Gaza conflict or to attacks carried out in support of Palestinians by a network of Arab militias from the Mediterranean to the Gulf.

In a public statement on Thursday, the Foreign Ministry in Teheran said "Iran considers the security of its people and its territorial integrity as a red line" and expects "friendly and brotherly" Pakistan to prevent armed militant bases on its soil.

The trigger for the flare-up was a devastating bombing on Jan 3 that killed nearly 100 people at a ceremony in Iran's southeastern Kerman city to commemorate commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed by a US drone in 2020.

Iran has also arrested dozens of people linked to Islamic State.

A senior Iranian official told Reuters that Iran had provided Pakistan with evidence that Jaish al-Adl was involved in the Kerman attack, coordinating its logistics, and had asked Pakistan to act against it.

On Thursday, the United Nations and many countries had appealed for restraint. China also offered to mediate between the two neighbors.

Agencies Via Xinhua