Islamabad(WNAM Report): “The swift managing of Pak-Iran border crisis disappointed those states who wanted to spoil the relations between the two neighbours”, says Syed Muhammad Ali, an internationally acclaimed foreign and strategic policy expert. He was speaking to an event, hosted by Institute of Regional Studies on the recent border tensions between Pakistan and Iran.
Mr. Ali, while delving into the historical and cultural linkages between Pakistan and Iran, commented that the relations between the two neighbourly states had multiple dimensions including military-to-military high-level contacts. He stated that Pakistan’s calculated response to the Iranian strikes inside Baluchistan depicted Pakistan’s status as a responsible nuclear power. “Pakistan’s retaliatory attack manifested precision, calculation and determination to avoid any collateral damage”, Mr. Ali argued. He stated that even Iran admitted and appreciated Pakistan’s selection of target in which no Iranian life was lost. Mr. Ali cautioned that any longevity of crisis between Pakistan and Iran would benefit the spoiler states like India. Therefore, in order to avoid such incidents in the future, economic interdependence, regulation of border markets and people-to-people contacts were utmost important, he further added.
Amb. Riffat Masood, former Ambassador of Pakistan to Iran, contributed while mentioning that the issues between the two states were primarily due to the porous border. She said that both Pakistan and Iran had complained with each other because of the presence of militants in each other’s territories. She further argued that the sense of deprivation existed in both Pakistan’s Baluchistan and Iran’s Sistan province. “This episode brought the realities to both the states regarding regional complexities”, Amb. Riffat argued. She concluded by mentioning that if the economic stakes between the two countries were high, the miscreants would found little space to create disturbance in that region.
In the end, Amb. Nadeem Riyaz, President Institute of Regional Studies, and Mr. Fraz Naqvi, in-charge Iran Program at IRS, thanked both the speakers and the audience for participating in the event and stressed upon strengthening the bilateral relations between Pakistan and Iran.
