Iran’s airstrikes in Pakistan: Where does India stand and why?

In the early hours of Wednesday, Iran carried out missile strikes on two bases of the militant outfit Jaish-al-Adl at Kouh-Sabz in Balochistan in Pakistan, raising fears of a wider conflict in the West Asia region. A fuming Pakistan then recalled its ambassador from Tehran and expelled the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan. It called the strike as an “illegal and unacceptable act” and asserted that Islamabad reserves the right to respond, according to news agency Reuters. Pakistan has also suspended all ongoing and planned high-level visits with its neighbour, Tehran. And on Thursday morning, Pakistan responded to Iran’s strikes with a set of its own — targeting bases of the Balochistan Liberation Front and the Balochistan Liberation Army. Amid this situation, New Delhi reacted to Iran’s actions in Pakistan, seemingly justifying them. We take a closer look at India’s reaction to Iran’s strikes in Pakistan and why it has chosen such a stance. ‘Understand actions taken in self-defence’ On Wednesday evening, the Ministry of External Affairs official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal issued a statement in reaction to the strikes, saying, “This is a matter between Iran and Pakistan. Insofar as India is concerned, we have an uncompromising position of zero tolerance towards terrorism. We understand actions that countries take in their self defence.” Significantly, the Ministry of External Affairs chose to remain mum on Iran’s strikes against Kurdish areas in Iraq as well as in Syria, which had taken place a day earlier.

Our response to media queries regarding Iran's air strikes in Pakistan:https://t.co/45NAxXTpkG pic.twitter.com/1P4Csj5Ftb

— Randhir Jaiswal (@MEAIndia) January 17, 2024

New Delhi’s reaction comes after Iran launched a combination of missile and drone attacks , targeting strongholds of the Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Pakistan foreign office had first issued a statement that two children were killed and three girls injured in the “unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran”. Later, Iran’s foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, on the sidelines of the Davos meeting, said, “None of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones”, adding, “The so-called Jaish al-Adl group, which is an Iranian terrorist group, was targeted.” Amir-Abdollahian said Iran’s attack on “Pakistan’s soil” was a response to the Jaish al-Adl group’s recent deadly attacks on the city of Rask. He further added that Tehran respected sovereignty and territorial integrity of Pakistan but would not “allow the country’s national security to be compromised or played with”.

India’s ‘defence’ of Iran It’s not too surprising that India has justified Iran’s attack on Pakistan soil, as New Delhi had carried out a cross-border operation in 2016 and 2019, taking out terror camps on Pakistan soil. In September 2016, the Indian Army had launched surgical strikes against terrorist camps in Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The strike was in response to an attack by Pakistan-based terrorists on an army base in Kashmir’s Uri on 18 September in which 19 soldiers were killed. The surgical strike was hailed by the people of the country as well as the armed forces, with Defence Minister Rajnath Singh saying that it gave a clear message to the world that “we can kill terrorists on this side as well as by crossing the border if the need arises”. Three years later, India took on a similar operation in 2019. Twelve days after a convoy of vehicles carrying CRPF personnel was attacked by a suicide bomber in the Pulwama district of Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian Air Force carried out airstrikes in Balakot, launching attacks on the Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) terror camp. IAF pilots dropped five Spice 2000 bombs, out of which four penetrated the rooftops of the building in which the terrorists were sleeping. [caption id=“attachment_13627222” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Iran’s president Ebrahim Raisi during a meeting, in Tehran. File image/PTI[/caption] India-Iran’s ties New Delhi has long shared ties with Iran; the countries’ ancient and modern histories have been intertwined. Since Indian independence, the relations have been essentially peaceful, friendly and empathic. They have turned more fruitful and productive after the Iranian revolution of 1979, the war in Afghanistan and the tense Iranian-Pakistani ties. However, the relationship between the two countries has seen its share of lows. In 2019, India stopped its imports of oil from Iran owing to US sanctions following the revocation of the Iran nuclear deal. Also issues like New Delhi’s close ties with Israel, and Iran’s ties with China have been sticky matters between the two countries. There are others issues too — India’s improving ties with Saudi Arabia, and even Iran’s statement on the Modi government’s abrogation of Article 370, which gave special status to Kashmir. Nonetheless, Tehran and New Delhi have tried to maintain a cordial trajectory of ties. In recent times, the Iran-backed Houthi rebels have wreaked terror on the high seas, attacking ships belonging to India, US and any other vessel. However, India is hoping to appeal to Iran to use its clout to make the Houthis stop their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. **Also read: How Houthi attacks in Red Sea are affecting India’s exports** In fact, just a day before Iran struck Pakistan, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar was in Tehran where he flagged the issue of ships being attacked as a matter of grave concern. S Jaishankar on Monday said that such threats have a direct bearing on India’s energy and economic interest as he underlined that this “fraught situation” is not to the benefit of any party. “There has also recently been a perceptible increase in threats to the safety of maritime commercial traffic in this important part of the Indian Ocean,” he said in a joint press statement after wide-ranging talks with Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian. Geopolitically speaking, India would also like to maintain its ties with Iran so as to have a hold in the Arab world. New Delhi realises that China has also entered the sphere and would not like to lose ground to Beijing. Will New Delhi’s gamble pay off? Only time will tell. With inputs from agencies