ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iran and Pakistan have agreed to set up a joint rapid reaction force in response to recent terrorist attacks that killed dozens of security forces of both countries, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in Tehran on April 22 during a meeting with Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.
“We agreed to increase our security cooperation… and to set up a joint rapid reaction force in the shared border areas to fight terrorism,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted Rouhani saying.
Relations between the two otherwise friendly neighbours have been strained in recent months after insurgent groups in the border area populated by the Balochi minority carried out two terror attacks. Tehran and Islamabad exchanged accusations of responsibility.
On February 13, a vehicle packed with explosives blew up as it drove past a bus carrying members of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), killing 27 and wounding over a dozen. The Army of Justice claimed responsibility. Iran claimed the group planned and executed the attack from inside Pakistan and urged Pakistani authorities to crack down on the group. The just-replaced head of the IRGC, Mohammad Ali Jafari, even threatened to retaliate by attacking the group inside Pakistan’s borders.
Soon after, Iran found itself on the receiving end of similar accusations when members of a Balochi umbrella group boarded a bus on April 18 in southern Pakistan, in the Balochistan border area, and killed 14 members of the Pakistani security forces. Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said in a press conference on April 20 that the group’s training and logistical camps were inside Iran’s borders and that Tehran has been informed. The Minister said that Islamabad expected Iran to take action against the BRAS, an alliance of three Baloch groups who have claimed responsibility for the attack.
It was in the midst of this security crisis that Prime Minister Imran Khan traveled to Tehran on Sunday for a two-day state visit to hammer out differences and mend fractured relations. Iran and Pakistan have had cordial relations over the years. Pakistan’s embassy in Washington represents Iranian interests in the United States. Iran and Pakistan have signed an agreement to build a natural gas pipeline to transfer Iranian gas to Pakistan, though the project has faced severe delays because of US sanctions.
The US has exerted extensive pressure on Iran’s neighbors, including Pakistan, to cut energy ties with Tehran. Pakistan imports crude oil and electricity from Iran, which is reeling from the re-imposition of harsh economic sanctions in November. The Iranian currency lost over 60 percent of its value and the escalated economic crisis has shuttered factories, throwing thousands of labourers out of work.
As the US tightens its noose around Iran, reportedly expected to announce it will not renew the oil waivers given to eight countries last November, Pakistan is also facing obstacles for its imports of more than 104MW of electricity from Iran.
In their meeting in Tehran, the Iranian and Pakistani leaders discussed a bartering agreement, IRNA reported, without specifying if this covered electricity imports. Rouhani told Khan that Iran was ready to export ten times the amount of electricity it is exporting now. “Iran is ready to provide for the oil needs of Pakistan and take the appropriate measures, which Iran has already carried out, to complete the gas pipeline,” Rouhani said, quoted by IRNA.
Iran and Pakistan have opened a new chapter in their relations, said Rouhani, Tasnim news reported, and "we won't allow any external interference in our affairs."
He also said Islamabad and Tehran can work together to create more stability in Afghanistan.