Focusing on Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, this theater represents a primary tri-threat landscape. Analysis targets nuclear escalation ladders, the command-and-control of regional proxy networks, cross-border kinetic friction, and the tactical utilization of 5th Generation Warfare (5GW).
Pakistan’s tenuous house is built on a torturous effort to balance relations with Saudi Arabia and Iran amid rising tension between the two regional rivals, prevent Pakistan from becoming an operational base for possible Saudi and US efforts to destabilize the Islamic republic, and employ militant groups as proxies in achieving its geopolitical objectives.
General Sharif had barely landed when Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman dashed the Pakistani’s hopes to include Iran in the alliance that nominally was created to fight terrorism rather than confront Iran.
Pakistan and Iran had traditionally enjoyed cordial relations. When Pakistan was formed, Iran was the first country to recognize it. Iran (under Reza Shah Pahlavi) and Pakistan both were part of the western capitalist camp during the tight bipolarity of the cold war.
The statement of Mr. Ahsan Iqbal clearly expresses that China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is pivotal for both Pakistan and China. It is a $ 46 billion project, which will connect Chinese province of Xinjiang with Pakistani port of Gwadar through the land route.
Pakistan has been for at least four decades a major theatre of operations in the global struggle between Saudi Arabia and Iran for dominance in the Muslim world. The stakes for both regional powers are high given that Pakistan borders on Iran; shares with the Islamic republic the restless region of Baluchistan that potentially allows Saudi Arabia and Iran to stir the pot in each other’s backyard; and is home to the world’s largest Shiite minority viewed by the kingdom as an Iranian fifth wheel.
CommandEleven’s briefing paper on the terrorism threat to CPEC — mapping BLA, TTP, and other groups targeting Chinese infrastructure and workers across Pakistan.
Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the G7 countries has threatened Pakistan with sanctions if it “fails to comply with necessary actions against terrorism” (Corr,2017). It has, rather magnanimously, given Pakistan three months’ time to comply or else face the music.
After a lapse of almost two decades, former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar returned to Kabul with a fair degree of pomp and show last week, as bystanders were neither jubilant nor fearful. Some recalled his rocket-ridden tactics which obliterated Kabul.
India never paid much attention to Gilgit-Baltistan or even claimed it along with Kashmir, so much so that the world did not even know that the ‘Kashmir dispute’ included the region of Gilgit-Baltistan, it was thought to be just the Kashmir valley which was claimed by both countries. Indian claim on Gilgit-Baltistan is a relatively recent development because it feels threatened by increasing Chinese influence and the China Pakistan Economic Corridor CPEC.
This Haqqani Network, consisting of Husain Haqqani, Christine Fair and Bruce Riedel, operates outside Pakistan to damage and weaken Pakistan’s armed forces and intelligence structure.
This new ‘wave of terror’ has transpired just as the country is poised to make its debut as a global trade destination. The China Pakistan Economic Corridor has been progressing satisfactorily, foreign investment has been rapidly multiplying and Pakistanis have never been this hopeful about the future before.
Moscow will host six-party talks about Afghanistan on 15 February, with Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Iran, India, and naturally Russia expected to be represented. Moreover, Zamir Kabulov – thought of as being the leader of the “Islamophile” South Asian faction in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – extended an invitation to the US as well, though stipulating that it should first be “ready to work constructively with regional powers” and “determine what they are planning to do in Afghanistan.”
For quite some time, a debate has been going on worldwide that, given Pakistan’s conventional military weakness in the face of a sudden Indian offensive under the Cold War doctrine, Pakistan will retaliate by using tactical nuclear weapons (TNWs) early in the conflict.
A country is only as good as its statesmen, decision makers, thinkers, strategists, Generals, Spy masters and political leaders who are collectively known as the ‘intelligentsia’. The decisions made by the ‘intelligentsia’ have far reaching consequences for a country’s fate, especially if the state in question is an infant country with scarce resources, limited national power and is dearly wanted by its powerful neighbors due to its valuable geography.
Not so long ago, “Counter-Terrorism” was an abstruse word for Pakistan’s military till General Tariq Khan stepped up and was handed over the command of 14 Division and later on Frontier Corps.
The New York Times has long considered itself an expert on Afghanistan and Pakistan, based on the sheer number of articles and books that have been published by staffers.
While some of the faces and names may have changed, the result is the same – a tense relationship that is always open to modification by other parties, whether part of the US government or not.
