Shaky ground: edit in the News, April 02, 2016

The capture of the Indian spy Kulbhushan Yadav may affect not only our relationship with India but with Iran too. Yadav’s arrest coincided with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s visit to Pakistan and the ISPR put out a statement saying army chief Raheel Sharif had brought up the RAW issue with Rouhani, only for the Iranian President to deny it. Now we have found that the spy had a valid Iranian visa and we believe there is an entire RAW network based in Chabahar. We have asked for Iranian help in dismantling it. Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan met the Iranian ambassador in Islamabad to discuss these issues on Friday. Iran, ideally, should not want its territory to be used for spycraft by a foreign power. The signs right now aren’t encouraging. Tensions between Islamabad and Tehran have deepened. These tensions, based on both sectarian and ethnic factors, have existed for a long time and are centred primarily around Balochistan, a territory that is also claimed by some groups based in the adjacent Iranian province. Our closeness to Saudi Arabia has always been viewed with suspicion by Iran and that suspicion has only multiplied with Iran and Saudi Arabia locked in proxy wars for regional supremacy. The recurrent and systematic killings of Pakistani Shias by Sunni militant groups believed to enjoy state patronage could only have worsened the situation and Iran has also always accused us of harbouring Sunni militant groups like Jundallah which carry out attacks in Iran. There have been many cases of cross-border firings and Iran even went so far as to threaten to cross over to the Pakistani side should it suspect presence of militants on our territory. We also know for a fact there has been Iranian involvement in Balochistan for many years. The matter has come up again and again and involved Baloch separatists on both sides of the border. The latest spying issue has brought it out into the open on the diplomatic platform. Iran has been irked too by our refusal to pay for our portion of the Iran gas pipeline under US pressure, though the Rouhani visit did help make progress on the pipeline. With most of these issues still unresolved our request to look into RAW activities in Iran may not be welcomed, especially since Iran and India have their own close ties. That said, on this particular issue, the ball is now in Iran’s court and it cannot be volleyed back.
How this crisis is handled from this point on will be important. For a variety of reasons Pakistan needs to maintain good relations with its neighbour to the west. Iran has suggested that a pipeline bringing in much-needed energy resources to fuel-starved Pakistan could be completed within months. There are also other, more important, reasons why Pakistan would wish to keep ties with Iran friendly. Given this it will now need to tread carefully to achieve the right balance. On the one hand it must maintain a relationship with Iran while also negotiating its traditionally shaky relations with India. We need to get to the bottom of India’s interference in Balochistan but in doing so we have to be careful not to ruin important relationships with our neighbours. It cannot be said with certainty that a great deal of care and tact has been observed on our side where the tendency to publicise the matter and embarrass an adversary has been too strong instead of diplomatically engaging with Iran on the issue and working out the matter subtly to the benefits of our own efforts to expose a spy network. This is a diplomatic challenge that needs to be met. How this is managed will determine a great deal about regional stability and harmony over the coming months. http://www.thenews.com.pk/print/109707-Shaky-ground