There are increasing flashpoints in Iran
The attackers of the Baluch Liberation Army, whose regime is under international pressure, had to respond strongly to the “Tuesday attack”
China, a crucial partner in both countries, had urged restraint. Beijing is a key regional player and has a major Belt and Road development in Gwadar port in Pakistan’s Baluchistan province. Baloch said she was unaware of any Chinese involvement in the conflict so far.
There’s more to consider in the tensions. Pakistan’s military relies on American, Chinese and French fighter jets for its air force — meaning some of those foreign weapons were used in Thursday’s attack.
An analyst at the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies said that the government and military had been under immense pressure. “Iran celebrated (Tuesday’s) attack in its media and the Pakistani public perception of a strong army is not as it used to be, so it had to respond.”
For Pakistan such systems are important, as tensions with India are always low. Their equipment has long been deployed along the frontier, rather than its border with Iran. Iran depends on those systems against potential strikes by the U.S.
Iran and Pakistan have a 700-kilometer (500-mile) border which is largely lawless. The route is also key to global opium shipments coming out of Afghanistan.
Iran’s military will conduct a yearly air defense drills from the port of Chabahar in Pakistan across the country to Iraq, raising the risk of a war. The drill will involve live fire from aircraft, drones and air defense systems.
The Baluch Liberation Army, which formed in 2000 and has launched attacks against Pakistani security forces and Chinese interests, is suspected of hiding out in Iran.
Iran said it launched missiles and drones into Pakistan’s southwest province of Balochistan to attack a hard-line Sunni Muslim group.
The attacks took place in a large region straddling Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan. It has long been a space where militants, separatists and smugglers have thrived and have used the region as a redoubt to attack both Iran and Pakistan, as NPR’s Diaa Hadid reported. Iran has previously conducted small ground incursions into Pakistan’s Balochistan province in pursuit of militants.
Iranian state television, quoting an anonymous official after the strike, said Tehran strongly condemned the attack and “demanded an immediate explanation” from Pakistan.
The Baluch Liberation Army, “Marg Bar Sarmachar,” and the U.S.-Israel War in the Era of the First World Economic Forum
HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people, shared images online that appeared to show the remains of the munitions used in the attack. It said a number of homes had been struck in Saravan. It shared videos showing a mud-walled building destroyed and smoke rising over the strike immediately after.
The deputy governor of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province, Ali Reza Marhamati, gave casualty figures in a phone interview and said that three women and four children were killed near the town of Saravan. He added that the dead were not Iranian citizens and acknowledged a separate blast near Saravan as well.
Pakistan named its operation “Marg Bar Sarmachar.” mar bar is a famous saying in Iran that means “death to”, and is said to refer to both the United States and Israel. The local Baluch language, “sarmachar” is used by the militant groups operating across the border.
“Pakistan will have to pay a price for it,” the group warned. The Baluch Liberation Army will no longer be silent. We will avenge it and we will make a war on Pakistan.
In the wake of the attack, Pakistan’s acting prime minister, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, rushed home from the World Economic Forum to meet top government officials.
Israel’s War in the Gaza Strip: Threats from a Second Front in the Middle East, and a TeV War Between Lebanon and Israel
There is a fear of violence in the Middle East because of Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip. Iran launched a series of missiles in Iraq and Syria late Monday over the Islamic State’s suicide bombing that killed over 90 people. Iraq has recalled its ambassador from Iran for consultations.
Pakistan and Iran have had distrustful relations in the past, and the recent strikes will have a negative effect on them.
Pakistan launched an attack Thursday using rockets and drones against a Balochistan separatist group inside neighboring Iran, killing nine people, just two days after Iran fired rockets at a rival separatist group on Pakistan’s side of the border.
Iran often prefers to have its proxy forces in the Middle East carry out attacks on its enemies. Hezbollah is a powerful militia in Lebanon. There have been repeated US airstrikes in Yemen due to the missile attacks on international shipping in the Red Sea. More than one thousand people were killed by Hamas in an attack on Israel in October. Israel has responded with a military campaign in Gaza that has left more than 24,400 people dead, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.
With tensions sky-high in a tinderbox region — and with a war in full spate in Gaza — the risk of another front opening up is constant, especially with a large variety of proxies, extremist groups and long-standing enemies facing off in a number of countries. The risk of a second front in the war has been raised by the fact that Israel and Hezbollah have been exchanging fire for weeks across the Lebanon-Israel border.
