Tehran, Oct 19 (IANS) No longer limited to private briefing rooms, Iranian misgivings about Pakistan’s mediation have now emerged in the public record and the language used in Tehran is sharper than anything Western analysts have been willing to publish. Iranian lawmaker Ahmad Naderi wrote that Pakistan’s entry with Saudi Arabia against the people of Yemen implies that Islamabad cannot be labelled as a mediator, a report has detailed.
“Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, without naming the Mecca Pact, called on neighbouring states to pursue self-reliance and genuine brotherhood, which in the Iranian context is a withdrawal of confidence rather than a pleasantry. This matters beyond bilateral sentiment, because Pakistan spent the past year persuading Washington and Tehran to route the decade’s most consequential negotiation through Islamabad, displacing Oman and Qatar in the process. That structure is now failing, when the Strait of Hormuz and global energy supply depend on the talks succeeding,” a report in the European Times stated.
On August 7, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Turkey signed the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement. Under the pact, an attack on any one country would be considered an attack on all three nations. The agreement reflected the shared commitment of the three nations “to further strengthen their collective security and to promote peace, security, and stability in the region and beyond, in pursuit of a secure and prosperous future”, a statement released by Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs mentioned.
Iran’s criticism increased after the Mecca Joint Defence Agreement entered its operational phase earlier this month, when an emergency meeting of the alliance’s Strategic Political and Defence Committee in Riyadh agreed for deploying forces to Saudi Arabia and named a retired Pakistani Lieutenant General as first Secretary-General, according to the report.
Conservative commentators, including Hassan Hanizadeh, termed the meeting as proof of intentional Shia-Sunni polarisation engineered by Saudi Arabia with involvement of Pakistan. Iranian lawmakers who had earlier described the Mecca Pact as symbolic had abandoned that analysis after Pakistan officials took command positions in the alliance, the European Times report mentioned.
Pakistan deployed around 8,000 soldiers, fighter air defence systems and fighter aircraft to Saudi Arabia in April, and Pakistan now holds a senior administrative position in a military alliance whose opponent is Iran’s closest regional partner, the Houthis, while Islamabad has been claiming neutrality to pass messages between Tehran and Washington. In April, Pakistan hosted the talks between Iran and the US and presented itself as the dispensable channel to both parties. However, the provisional truce Pakistan brokered with Qatar in June collapsed immediately, and the war continued for 200 days.
“Iranian analyst Seyed Mojtaba Jalalzadeh argues that repeated failure has already downgraded Pakistan from a mediator capable of resolving the conflict to a facilitator with access to the parties, warning that Islamabad’s reputation will erode if it keeps promising more than it can deliver. Grace Wermenbol has noted that recurring conflict has eroded the trust any durable ceasefire requires. Farzana Shaikh of Chatham House raised the more uncomfortable possibility that Tehran’s confidence in Islamabad was never as solid as outsiders assumed, meaning Pakistan has traded on a reputation it did not hold,” the report in European Times stated.
However, defenders of Pakistan’s role will cite Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei’s remarks that Pakistan remains the mediator, with Qatar assisting if needed. The statement is real, but the government does not announce losing confidence through a spokesperson when the negotiation is active, which is why parliament and media commentary is important, as that is where Iran’s positions are tested before becoming policy.
“The sensible course is to demote Pakistan rather than exclude it outright. Perhaps Oman or another responsible West Asian country could play the mediatory role, where it has competence and genuine standing with Tehran. Pakistan can keep passing messages – the function it can actually perform – and should be treated as a courier rather than a guarantor. This is not punishment but elementary risk management, because a mediator whose credibility rests on payments from one side and troops deployed against the other will eventually be tested, and that test is not a moment the world can afford to schedule by accident,” a report in the European Times stated.
–IANS
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