Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian’s visit to Pakistan earlier this month served to highlight once again the importance of the brotherly relations between the two countries for safeguarding their security, promoting their economic progress, strengthening cultural ties and deepening regional cooperation.

It is worth recalling that Iran was the first country to recognise Pakistan soon after its independence in 1947. It was with good reason that Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah told Raja Ghazanfar Ali Khan, the first Pakistan ambassador to Iran in May 1948 that he was going to a country which already had the most cordial relations in the world with Pakistan.

Historically, relations between the two countries can be divided into four distinct phases. The first phase, which lasted till 1979 when the Shah was overthrown by the Islamic Revolution, witnessed the blossoming of a very friendly relationship between the two countries marked by cooperation in political, military, economic and cultural fields and the alliance of the two countries with the West.

The advent of the Islamic Revolution in Iran saw the beginning of a new phase in Pakistan-Iran relations. While bilateral relations remained close, marked by exchange of high-level visits, the animosity between the Iranian Islamic revolutionary government and the US, the Iran-Iraq war and sectarian differences added complicating factors to Pakistan-Iran relations.

In the third phase, starting from the 1990s, Pakistan-Iran bilateral relations suffered badly from the Afghan civil war in which the two countries supported opposing sides. Pakistan-Iran relations were also adversely affected by sectarian terrorism in Pakistan, in which several Iranian officials lost their lives.

About two weeks before I arrived at Tehran at the end of September 1997 to assume charge as Pakistan’s ambassador to Iran, five IRGC cadets, who were on a training mission in Pakistan, had been murdered in an ambush in Rawalpindi. Earlier in the year, Rahimi, the director of the Iranian Cultural Centre in Multan, had been assassinated.

The need for defusing tensions and improving relations between Pakistan and Iran was both urgent and a strategic imperative at the time. Fortunately, the intensity of sectarian terrorism in Pakistan gradually declined. However, both Pakistan and Iran were slow to recognise the harmful effects of their proxy war in Afghanistan on peace in that country and on their bilateral relationship. Their half-hearted attempts to promote reconciliation between the Taliban and the Northern Alliance, therefore, failed.

The American military occupation of Afghanistan in the wake of 9/11 carried far-reaching implications for Pakistan-Iran relations. Whereas Iran felt threatened by the American military presence in Afghanistan, especially after US president Bush branded Iran, Iraq and North Korea as the axis of evil in 2002, Pakistan under Musharraf, despite some policy differences, was able to develop a modus vivendi with the US during the US invasion and military occupation of Afghanistan. American nuclear-related sanctions imposed against Iran from time to time since the 1990s acted as a major constraint on the efforts to strengthen Pakistan-Iran economic and commercial cooperation during the third phase.

The American military withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the resumption of the Taliban rule in Afghanistan, the reimposition of American sanctions on Iran in the wake of the American withdrawal in 2018 from the Iran nuclear deal of 2015 called JCPOA and the air strikes by Israel and the US on Iran in June this year have set the stage for the fourth and the current stage of Pakistan-Iran relations. Both countries need to handle their vitally important relationship with maturity and wisdom to avoid past mistakes and take full advantage of the potential benefits of cooperation in the future.

Pakistan and Iran are closely linked by centuries-old cultural and historical ties, economic complementarities, geographical proximity and people-to-people contacts. Their policymakers should not ignore the fact that the security of the two countries is closely linked. Both have suffered when they worked at cross purposes on critical regional issues as, for example, in Afghanistan during the 1990s. Pakistan-Iran cooperation, therefore, is an essential prerequisite for durable peace and stability in Afghanistan.

The recent Israeli and US air strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities have radically transformed the regional security scenario. Pakistan has rightly condemned these strikes, which constituted a blatant violation of the UN Charter and Iran’s legitimate rights as a party to the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT). While supporting Iran’s right to develop its nuclear programme for peaceful purposes in accordance with the provisions of the NPT, we should continue to call for a peaceful resolution of the differences between Iran and the Western countries on the nuclear issue.

Our friendship with the US should not be at the expense of our friendly relations with Iran, which is an important brotherly Muslim country and neighbour of Pakistan. Therefore, we should develop friendly relations and mutually beneficial cooperation with Iran in various fields, keeping in view our overall interests. We should develop innovative and practical ways, going beyond declaratory statements, for increasing Pakistan-Iran trade and economic cooperation, bypassing American economic sanctions. This applies in particular to the Iran-Pakistan gas pipeline project, which is in the mutual interest of the two countries.

Hopefully, the two countries will take necessary steps to increase the annual bilateral trade from the current level of $2.8 billion to $10 billion within a short time, as reiterated by the two sides during President Pezeshkian’s visit to Pakistan. For this purpose and for strengthening mutual security, the two countries will have to enhance bilateral cooperation in combating terrorism in their border regions as agreed during the Iranian President’s visit. The two countries should take effective steps to put an end to the terrorist activities of the BLA and Jaish-al-Adl.

The Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), comprising Pakistan, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan, the Central Asian Republics and Azerbaijan, offers attractive avenues for promoting regional trade, economic cooperation and connectivity among the member states. Both Pakistan and Iran, together with other member states, must energise their efforts to take full advantage of the potential of this regional organisation. It would also be in the interest of both Pakistan and Iran to extend CPEC to Iran to enhance its effectiveness and utility.

The national interests of Pakistan and Iran are both complementary and competitive. While taking full advantage of all avenues of mutually beneficial cooperation, they should not turn their possible competition in Afghanistan or regional trade into confrontation. Instead, they should manage it within the limits of mutual tolerance and in accordance with the principle of mutual accommodation.

Finally, we should always keep in mind that in any conflict with India, Iran’s friendship and support are of paramount importance to Pakistan. India has, from time to time, emphasised in confidential conversations its strategic goal to weaken Pakistan’s friendly relations with Iran. We should not allow India to succeed in its nefarious designs. Fortunately, we may have a willing partner in Iran, chastened by India's refusal to condemn Israeli air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.  

(Courtesy of www.thenews.com.pk)