Pakistani Prime Minister to Visit Iran

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will pay an official visit to Iran in May to hold talks with Iranian authorities, Pakistan’s foreign minister, Sartaj Aziz, announced today. The exact date of the visit has not been set yet. (Press TV, 2 April)

 

Aziz, who is also the country’s national security advisor, said today that the premier’s visit will aim to improve Tehran-Islamabad relations. He added, “the balance of the relationship among Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan is crucial.”
 

Sharif’s visit will come at a time of heightened tensions between the two countries. In February, the militant Baluch group Jaish ul-Adl kidnapped five Iranian border guards and has since announced the execution of one of them. The Iranians believe the group is holding its hostages inside the Pakistani territory, with Pakistan not doing enough to find them. There are also suspicions by the Iranians that the Pakistani intelligence service, the ISI, might know more about the location of the hostages than publicly reported. Pakistani officials have said, however, that the NAJA border guards are not kept in Pakistani territory.

Earlier this week, IRGC took over the responsibility for the security of Baluchistan and its borders with Pakistan, and it is expected that the IRGC will now conduct long-term anti-terrorist operations in greater Baluchistan against militant Baluch groups who hold sanctuaries on the Pakistani side of the border. 

 

The IRGC has been similarly operating in Kurdistan for many years, in an ongoing fight against the Kurdish militant group PJAK. Baluchistan will become the second front for the IRGC inside Iran. Externally, its Quds Force is actively involved in the Syrian civil war.

It is also expected that the IRGC Special Forces, the Saberin, and other elements of IRGC ground forces stationed in Baluchistan, start a search and rescue operation to find and free the remaining hostages, which would entail a military incursion inside Pakistan.

Aside from the recent kidnapping, Iran is generally concerned with the rapid rise of Sunni extremism in the region, especially in its neighboring Pakistan and Iraq. And it regards Saudi Arabia as the main force behind it. Interestingly, the Pakistani foreign minister referred to a need to "balance the relationship between Iran, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan." Sharif’s visit comes at a delicate moment in the relations of the two countries.       

Photo credit: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (Press TV)

PJAK Warns Retaliation After Tehran Executes Its Senior Member

The Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK) on Saturday warned it would not let Saturday’s execution of one of its jailed leaders Habibollah Golparipour go unanswered.

Since 2004, PJAK has taken arms against the central government in Tehran. It says its goal is to establish a semi-autonomous Kurdish regional entity in Iran, similar to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq. PJAK claims it has about 3,000 armed militiamen, half of them women. It is widely believed that PJAK is a wing of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), Turkey’s militant Kurdish party. PJAK leader Abdulrahman Haji Ahmadi is based in Europe.

“Our senior leader Golparipour was hanged by the Islamic Republic and he died like a martyred hero,” PJAK said in a statement, also referring to him by his nom de guerre, Bahoz Sina. “The execution of Bahoz Sina will not go unanswered,” it warned. (ekurd.net, 27 October)

Since 2011, PJAK and Iranian security forces had been observing a de facto ceasefire, which has been breached at times. But in its unusually strong statement, PJAK warned that the recent developments have put the ceasefire in peril.

“As usual, Iran's response to our peaceful attempts is attacks, pressure and the execution of Kurdish political prisoners,” it said. ”In a situation like this a ceasefire becomes quite difficult and we will have to reassess Iran's policies towards the Kurdish people.”

“The Islamic Republic is speaking of political opening and democracy in its international relations, but inside the country it is pursuing a very hostile policy towards minority groups, including the Kurds,” read PJAK's statement. (ekurd.net, 27 October)

File photo: PJAK fighters. (Flickr/ekurd.net)

Armed PKK Fighters Might Join Their Iranian and Syrian Affiliates

Resulting from Turkey-PKK Ongoing Peace Talks

Turkish government and Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) appear to be close to an agreement in their ongoing peace talks that would let PKK fighters keep their weapons if they leave Turkey, presumably to join their Iranian and Syrian Kurdish fighters, Today’s Zaman reported.

“The possibility that PKK terrorists may withdraw from Turkey without disarming could disturb Iran,” said Bayram Sinkaya, an Iranian expert at Ankara’s Beyazit University. (Today’s Zaman, 13 April)

Sinkaya added that the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK), OKK-linked Iranian militants, could enormously benefit from PKK armed fighters joining their ranks. PJAK is based in Iraqi Kurdistan and can operate across the border in Iranian Kurdistan. A fragile cease-fire between Iran and PJAK has been observed for more than a year now.

Sinkaya said that if armed PKK fighters join them it might lead to new conflicts between Iran and PJAK. The arrival of PKK fighters would provide “fresh blood” for PJAK, he said.

Meanwhile, as the talks on settlement process with the PKK continue, some of the fighters with ties to Syria have already started to enter Syria.

“A significant number of PKK terrorists of Syrian origin have withdrawn, and they have gone to Syria,” Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said last week. (Today’s Zaman, 13 April)

Image: The Kurdish Flag (Getty Images)

An IRGC General, Two Other Officers Killed in Clashes with PJAK

Fars News Agency has said that IRGC Brig. Gen. Hamid Tabatabai was killed in the Northwest of Iran. The area has been the center of clashes between IRGC ground forces and the Kurdish militant group PJAK. (Fars News Agency, 24 February)

Meanwhile, Iran’s official news agency IRNA has reported the death of an IRGC officer, no rank provided, named Saeed Finayei in Western Iran. The semi-official Mehr News Agency also reports that another IRGC officer, Saeed Ghahari, was killed during clashes with the PJAK. (iranmilitarynews.org, 24 February)

The locations of the recent clashes are in the area of responsibility of IRGC Ground Forces.