As Iran recently faced a number of protests in the country, Pakistan is eyeing to gain geopolitical and strategic benefits from it to refurbish their credentials before their financier and benefactor Saudi Arabia, which is unhappy at Islamabad's meddling in Kabul. And Pakistan has begun needling the Tehran regime by stepping up their plan to fence the 959 km long border between the two countries, a report said.
"The US is finding new talking points in human rights, and repressive acts. Saying that the Iran regime is targeting innocent civilians, political opponents and peaceful protestors, the US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) under the Treasury Department has sanctioned the 'Special Unit of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces and its Commander Hassan Karami and Brigade Commander Syed Reza Mousavi Azami," said the Policy Research Group (POREG) in a report.
People in Iran recently protested over a number of issues that range from job insecurity to better pay and from drinking water woes to poor living conditions and blackouts of electricity have brought them to the streets.
Since July, rallies and sit-ins became pronounced when ethnic Arab farmers in Khuzestan province were on the roads voicing concern over water scarcity.
Nearly over a hundred towns in the country witnessed protests from taxi and truck drivers to labour and trade unions, and miners, many working-class people. Even pensioners, farmers and academia hit the streets to the discomfort of the regime in Tehran.
Meanwhile, the US sanctions were also imposed which targetted Commander Hassan Karami and Brigade Commander Syed Reza Mousavi Azami of the 'Special Unit of Iran's Law Enforcement Forces.
The US-led economic sanctions have apparently weighed heavily on Iran. Recession is at the doorstep with rising inflation (48 per cent), high unemployment (9 per cent) and poverty level (20 per cent), said POREG.
Due to the closure of the various small scale and medium scale industries due to difficulty in obtaining raw materials, spare parts and credit the IMF and the World Bank have forecast a decline of 9 per cent in the GDP.
With regard to the Iran government's preoccupation, Islamabad is attempting to exploit the condition to meet its geopolitical and strategic interests. Tehran had objected to fencing by Islamabad at the Pakistan-Iran border. However, Islamabad did not address Tehran's objections rather it additional border observation towers and structures.
Concerned with the new structures at the border, Iran immediately demanded the dismantling of it.
The border will always remain a flashpoint between the two nations not only because of the new structures or fencing but Sunni militant outfit, Jaish ul-Adl (Army of Justice), and its off-shoots carrying out hit and run attacks on the Iran side saying that they stand for the rights of Baloch Sunnis in Iran.
According to POREG, Jaish ul-Adl is seen as a militant outfit backed and funded by Pakistan, two decades ago to herald a bloody rebellion against the Iranian Government, well at the behest of Washington. Tehran regards them as terrorist organisations. Pakistan is funding and backing Jaish ul-Adl as well to divert global attention from the abuses it is committing in Balochistan to Iran, according to a June 15, 2021 dispatch in the Afghan daily, Hasht-e- Subh. It added that these Sunni terrorist outfits take delight in kidnapping Iranian border guards.
( With inputs from ANI )
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