Rear Admiral Shamkhani in Islamabad, Pakistan

Pakistani Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan (L) with IRIN Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, on 28OCT15 at Islamabad, Pakistan.

According to PressTV:

Iran has praised the decision by the Pakistani government not to join Saudi Arabia’s deadly military aggression against its impoverished neighbor, Yemen.

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani hailed the Pakistani government’s refusal to get militarily involved in Yemen during a meeting with Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in Pakistan’s capital city on Thursday.

[…]

The Pakistani prime minister, for his part, appreciated Iran’s ‘active and constructive’ role in regional matters, especially in the campaign against terrorism.

COMMENTARY: The agenda for Shamkhani’s trip included border security, intelligence-sharing, security cooperation and exploring the prospects of bilateral cooperation after the nuclear-related sanctions are lifted.

Pakistani National Security Advisor Naseer Khan Janjua (L) with IRIN Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, on 29OCT15 at Islamabad, Pakistan.

Naseer Khan Janjua is a retired Pakistani Army Lieutenant General and former commander of XII Corps. He assumed the office of National Security Advisor the same day as his meeting with Shamkhani.

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif (R) with IRIN Rear Admiral Ali Shamkhani, secretary of the Supreme National Security Council of Iran, on 29OCT15 at Islamabad, Pakistan.

Large portrait on wall bears likeness of Muhammad Ali Jinnah (“Quaid-i-Azam”, “Baba-i-Qaum”), founder of Pakistan.

Shamkhani appears to have arrived 28OCT15 at Islamabad - Benazir Bhutto International Airport (ISB / OPRN) aboard IRIG Dassault Falcon 50, reg. EP-TFI (cn 120).

Photos: Islamic Republic News Agency

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)

Old Times

Students of Aryamehr University, now Sharif, watching soccer game, circa 1968. Among them are some of this blogger’s (Nader Uskowi) old friends and Alborz classmates. Photo: old-pic.blogspot.com