PAKISTAN-IRAN: Turf-Battle Over Afghan Rubble

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Analysis - Nasim Zehra

ISLAMABAD, Nov 10 1995 (IPS) - Pakistan’s traditionally cordial ties with nearby Iran have been frayed by the competing interests of both countries in the civil war in Afghanistan.

The superpower proxy war that drove the Afghan conflict in the 1980’s has now been replaced by a regional proxy war between neighbours bent on increasing their presence in the strategic area. Afghanistan has been reduced to rubble.

Iran’s relations with Pakistan which even survived the Cold War years when Washington and Islamabad were allies is now the casualty of the Afghan conflict — where the two countries support rival factions.

In her visit to Tehran this week Pakistan Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto bent over backwards to convince slightly skeptical Iranian leaders that her country still values ties with Iran.

She also forcefully denied that Pakistan was supporting the Taliban student warriors who have a launched a blitzkrieg against President Burhanuddin Rabbani’s government and seized more than a third of the country in the past six months.

Tehran is angry that the Taliban, an Islamic militia of students from seminaries in Pakistan, routed the pro-Iranian Shi’ite group in western Afghanistan and forced its warriors to flee across the border.

Bhutto’s three-day visit, from Nov. 6-8, was the second high-profile Pakistani attempt to allay Iranian apprehensions over Islamabad’s involvement in Afghanistan. Her foreign minister, Sardar Assef Ali, was in Tehran in September.

Though television pictures showed a beaming Bhutto with her Iranian hosts and giving a thoughtful address to an attentive Iranian parliament, Iran does not seem to have been convinced that Pakistan does not have ulterior motives in Afghanistan.

The Taliban are seeking to oust Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani whose Shi’ite Jamait Islami is supported by Tehran. Iran views the Taliban, almost exclusively Sunni Pushtuns, as an anti- Iran religious and political grouping whose main interest would be to establish a base for anti-Iran operations from Afghanistan.

Pakistan maintains it is neutral in the Afghan conflict, but the amazing firepower and guns and fighter aircraft at the command of the Taliban have led to the widespread belief that they are backed by Pakistan’s military intelligence.

Pakistan has long been an important player in Afghan affairs. During the Cold War, the United States fought a proxy war with rival Soviet Union from Pakistan where it armed Islamic militant groups fighting the Moscow-backed regime in Kabul.

The retreat of Soviet troops in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet-backed Najibullah regime in Kabul prompted many to think the war in Afghanistan was over.

Pakistan then strongly favoured the ethnic Pushtoon Hizbul Islami chief Gulbuddin Hekmatyar to lead the government in Kabul. But other Mujahideen groups — backed by neighbours — had different ideas. By 1992, a civil war was raging again.

Pakistan would like the territory to remain within its sphere of influence, so it can secure a trade route to Central Asia. Saudi Arabia and the United States are also backing Islamabad in this endeavour because they want to contain Iran.

Tehran, in turn, fears an unfriendly government in Kabul could endanger its own restive Khorasan province. The Russians, apprehensive over the advance of a religious militia and the domino effect it could have on the Central Asian republics at its doorstep, have expressed support for President Rabbani.

New Delhi too stands accused of trying to meddle in the Afghan quagmire. Pakistan has said India is backing the Rabbani regime with repair facilities for his air force. New Delhi denies this, saying it only flies food and medicines to Kabul.

In the midst of all this, Islamabad’s relations with Washington have changed somewhat with visits by U.S. officials and generals and joint Pakistan-U.S. military exercises. Then Islamabad reportedly decided to lease a patch of beach near the Iranian border as a U.S. navy listening post and a remote installation in the north for the U.S. military to monitor Chinese nuclear tests.

Given the close ties between Beijing and Tehran, Iranian diplomats here say they are watching these moves with concern.

Visiting U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Robin Raphel did not help matters when she used a visit to Islamabad earlier this week to note: “Iran is a supporter of terrorist groups … so our policy is to isolate Iran.”

Pakistani officials claim Tehran’s misgivings are not justified since Iran has had its hands deep in the Afghan civil war as well — noting the close Iranian support that Rabbani enjoys.

“It’s just a matter of scale. Everyone has a hand in the pie,” says one Pakistani official. And trust seems to be the only thing missing: even after Bhutto’s fence-mending trip.