These strikes occurred in northern Iraq, northern Syria, and western Pakistan, respectively, all within a span of nearly 24 hours. The actions were taken in response to terrorist attacks carried out by these groups in Iran’s Kerman and Sistan and Baluchestan provinces in recent weeks, resulting in the tragic loss of around 105 Iranian lives, including dozens of children and women.
In the case of Syria, the government there has closely cooperated with Iran in fighting NATO/Arab League-backed terrorism since 2011 and viewed this missile strike as a continuation of their joint struggle. However, the response in Iraq was different.
The Iraqi government, along with some less ethical officials in northern Iraq, swiftly condemned the attack as a "violation of the country’s sovereignty" and filed a complaint with the UN Security Council.
Due to political turmoil and Western pressures, the Iraqi central government has struggled to oversee the actions of politicians in Iraq’s semi-autonomous Kurdish region. This lack of oversight has allowed the Zionists to establish a strong and shadowy foothold in the region, close to the Iranian borders. In the 1970s and 1980s, the isolated Zionist regime found a close ally in the notorious Apartheid regime in South Africa, supplying the latter with uranium and military technology in exchange for military equipment and expertise. Similarly, the Zionists provide military equipment and expertise to the mafia-like regime in Erbil in exchange for access to Iranian borders, a deal most other countries are unwilling to provide. Plenty of pictures, interviews, and memoirs by former Kurdish and Zionist officials indicate the strong presence of Zionists in northern Iraq.
Iran experienced an 8-year war with Iraq’s former regime, and when ISIS threatened both Baghdad and Erbil, Iran rushed to their aid. Three decades after the war's conclusion, Iran continues to discover the bodies of its fallen soldiers from Saddam’s invasion, and its memory of soldiers like General Soleimani, who was assassinated while defending Iraq, remains vivid for many Iranians.
It is only fair for Iraqi officials to listen to Iran’s repeated requests for border security.
On its eastern borders, Iran faces a similar problem mainly due to a weak central government in a neighboring country. The Jaish al-Adl terrorist group has been carrying out attacks against Iran since 2003, the same year the United States invaded another one of Iran's neighbors, Iraq, after occupying Afghanistan. Pakistan refused to allow the US to use its soil directly to surround Iran for a planned attack, so, Jaish al-Adl was to cover that flank for the Americans.
Pakistan hosts dozens of terrorist groups with Takfiri ideologies, including Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), and Harkat-ul-Jihad al-Islami (HuJI).
The Pakistani government has lukewarm relationship with these groups because of two reasons. One is that the government is unable to eradicate these groups, which are manned by large numbers of extremists and ultra-nationalists, as it chooses to focus its resources on the decades-long conflict with India, instead of igniting a civil war.
Secondly, many of these groups were created and supported by the Pakistani system to serve as low-cost mini armies, or what Niccolò Machiavelli calls auxiliary troops, to counter a more economically capable adversary like India, especially in disputes over Kashmir.
Moreover, Pakistan played a key role in creating and training another internationally famous proxy group, this time for a foreign client, the US, during the 1990s. This group was called the Taliban, which was recently recycled back into power in Afghanistan, seemingly to substitute for the US as it reallocates its forces against Iran, China, and Russia.
The Jaish al-Adl group, formerly known as Jundallah, bears close resemblance to the Taliban, having an American father, a Saudi mother, and a Pakistani surrogate.
With the recent amendment in Iran-Saudi relations, it is reasonable to assume that Zionists have replaced the Saudis in their support and handling of this group. The list of Jaish al-Adl terrorist attacks against Iran is long.
For example, on February 14, 2007, they detonated a car bomb in Zahedan city, killing 11 Iranian security forces and injuring 31 others. On May 28, 2009, the group's suicide bomber targeted a mosque in the same city, resulting in the deaths of 27 Iranians and injuring over 100 others.
On October 18, 2009, another suicide bomber from the group targeted a gathering of Shia and Sunni leaders, killing 42 people, including General Noor-Ali Shoshtari, the Deputy Commander of the Ground Forces of the elite IRGC military force.
More recently, the group carried out a deadly attack on a Police Command Headquarters in Rasak, resulting in the murders of 11 Iranian police forces and injuries to eight others.
The Iran-Pakistan border is vast and dotted with mountains, and Iran alone cannot secure the region despite significant resource allocations in recent years. Iran has appealed numerous times to various Pakistani administrations to enhance security along the border, but these pleas have fallen on deaf ears. The Jaish ul-Adl has even published videos of its attacks, showing its members driving to Iranian border posts, cutting the border barbed wires, and crossing into Iran before retreating back into Pakistan.
Despite this indisputable evidence, sometimes Pakistani officials go as far as suggesting that the terrorists come from within Iran itself, asserting that Iran should not blame others.
Terrorist attacks from Pakistan pose a significant challenge to all neighboring countries.
Remember the head of Pakistan's ISI intelligence agency proudly enjoying tea in Kabul shortly after the Taliban came back to power? Today, the relationship between Pakistan and its once-sweet offspring has soured too.
China has been largely immune to Pakistan-based terrorist attacks, thanks to its limited border region with Pakistan, which is located in rough terrain.
Pakistani officials too have been careful not to upset their country’s biggest investor, China.
Yet Chinese nationals have not been immune to terrorist attacks inside Pakistan.
With the recent Iranian operation targeting Iranian members of Jaish al-Adl terrorists hiding in border regions inside Pakistan, it's expected that some Pakistani news channels, in an alarmist fashion similar to Fox News, will react vehemently and call for a harsh response to what they label as Tehran’s 'unforgivable crime’. However, the truth is that the Iranian public, like their policymakers, have grown weary of the relatively peaceful doctrine of “Strategic Patience” and are adopting more effective measures to address the insecurities around them.
When the Iranians arrived in Damascus in the 1980s to assist Syria in liberating its Golan Heights, they were met with Syrian officials who lacked the resolve for war and seemed more inclined towards maintaining the status quo, rather than showing a clear commitment to conflict. Syria adopted a diplomatic stance, aiming to befriend everyone, from having breakfast with the Axis of Resistance to lunching with Erdogan and supping with the West. This playful and naive mindset eventually plunged the country into a brutal war, prompting them to call upon Iranians for assistance once again.
In my opinion, Pakistan seems to be treading a similarly dangerous path. Perhaps, if Pakistani leaders redirected their focus towards addressing domestic issues, particularly in the border regions, rather than frequenting London and Dubai, they could develop a more profound understanding of their neighbors' concerns. Otherwise, we might witness them reaching out to their Iranian counterparts for assistance in combating rogue terrorist groups in the near future. Until then, it is my belief that Iran has the right and should continue to exercise self-defense as sanctioned by Article 51 of the United Nations Charter.
As I was penning this article, the news broke out that Jaish al Adl terrorists have ambushed the car of an Iranian security personnel, Col. Hussein Ali Javdan-Far, and murdered him not too far from the border with Pakistan.
*Kiarash Jalili a York University, Toronto alumnus with a BA Honours in Political Science, lends his expertise to the IRNA as a defense and political contributor.
Opinions expressed in this article are of the author’s own and do not represent those of the IRNA.
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