The regime in Tehran is sending the message to the world that it can take revenge for any aggression and do so almost anywhere. Iranian missiles and drones fired yesterday morning for the first time on Pakistani territory, despite the fact that relations between the two neighboring countries are good, to the point that their respective navies celebrated joint naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday.
Without warning, as Islamabad has protested, Iran attacked Jaish al-Adl (or Justice Army) bases in Koh-i-Sabz, about 50 kilometers inside the Pakistani border, in the province of Balochistan, and caused four deaths. It is a Sunni group classified as “terrorist” by the United States and, no doubt, by Iran, which claims the independence of Baluchistan, a region divided between Iran and Pakistan, and which faces the forces armies of both countries. This attack was the continuation of two more that had been launched the day before – also with missiles and drones – on the Syrian province of Idlib, against jihadist groups, and on Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.
The Pakistani Government yesterday protested the violation of its territory and summoned its ambassador to Tehran for consultations, as is customary. And, after a telephone conversation between the respective foreign ministers, he pointed out that the attack seriously harmed relations between the two countries and reserved the “right to respond”.
Iran’s argument may come as no surprise: its target was Iranian terrorists hiding in Pakistan, and in fact it has dealt with them as the United States usually does even in an allied country, an excuse it evoked without no doubt the recent case of the assassination with a drone in the same Baghdad Defense complex of a head of the Iraqi Shia militias, therefore a member of the “Axis of Resistance” against Israel sponsored by Tehran.
Iran would be taking full revenge for several incidents: the assault on a police station in Rask, in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan, in December, which was claimed by Jaish al-Adl (just yesterday, a colonel of the Revolutionary Guard was shot dead in the same province); the double attack in the city of Kerman, which caused 84 deaths on January 3, attributed to the Islamic State, and of course several deaths of commanders of the Revolutionary Guard and the “Axis of the Resistance. In all of them, Tehran sees the hand of Israel, the US or both behind them. The attack on jihadists in Syria on Tuesday is part of the same context, and even the bombing in Irbil, the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan, which killed the powerful real estate businessman Peixraw Dizaií and his 11-month-old daughter. According to the authorities in Irbil, Dizai had nothing to do with the Israeli Mossad, and Washington immediately described the attack as “reckless and imprecise”.
It can be understood, then, that the Iranian regime needs to stand up, in particular for internal propaganda consumption, but also to its allies of the “Axis of Resistance”. However, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hussein Amir Abdul·lahian, with whom the Prime Minister of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdish Government, Masrur Barzani, refused to meet during the World Economic Forum in Davos, stated in an interview in the Swiss city, as reported by the Efe agency, that “the operations of the last 24 hours have nothing to do with what is happening in Gaza”.
That is, once again, Iran claims that it does not intend to escalate in the region in defense of the Palestinians, but to defend itself, in response to specific events in each place: the death of its men in Iraq , the alleged support for the Islamic State by Al-Qaida groups in Syria or the attacks by the pro-independence forces in their province of Sistan-Baluchistan.
“We launched missile attacks on facilities linked to the Mossad in Irbil, without the intention of harming Iraq,” assured Minister Amir Abdul·lahian. And he added, to the surprise of all who listened: “What we did was in accordance with the security of Iraq, Pakistan and the entire region.”
Of course the Government of Islamabad also has the Baluchi “terrorists” as its enemies, and as for the one in Baghdad, its hands are tied when it comes to raising its voice because of the enormous influence of the Shiites and their militias In other words, Tehran has a free field to materialize in this country its confrontation with the United States and Israel, but Tehran’s latest actions do not exactly call for calm. After all, Pakistan is a nuclear power and Iranian missiles and drones broke into its territory cleanly, which comes pretty close to humiliation. Both countries are members of the Shanghai Group, and yesterday called on them to “avoid actions that could exacerbate tensions”.
In any case, it cannot be ruled out that the last punches on the table will not go free in Tehran.
