IN international relations, state sovereignty refers to the idea that each state is a separate and independent political entity and that it has the right to govern its territory and people without interference from other states or international organizations. State sovereignty also implies that a state has the right to control its borders, conduct its foreign policy and defend itself against external aggression.
According to the Britannica, the UN Charter imposes the duty on member states to “settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered” and supplemented it with the injunction that all members “shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force”. The Charter also states that the UN is “based on the principle of sovereign equality of all its members.”
In the light of the UN Charter, Pakistan follows the principle of respecting other countries’ sovereignty and it wants the neighbouring and other states to also respect its sovereignty. It also always advocates that the neighbouring states should “settle their disputes with it by peaceful means and refrain from the threat or use of force”. Therefore, keeping in view this principle, Pakistan follows the policy of not tolerating any violation of its sovereignty by the use of force by any country.
And, whenever any of its neighbouring countries tried to use force instead of opting for consultations/negotiations to resolve any mutual issues/disputes and violated its territory/sovereignty, Pakistan responded, in the same manner, using force. This is what Pakistan had to do in retaliation to Iran’s violation of its sovereignty on 16 January 2024, by striking a village in its Sistan-o-Balochistan province using missiles and drones on the plea that terrorists from Iran’s Jaish-al-Adal group were hiding there. In this case, Iran committed a serious mistake of opting to use force instead of sharing that information with Pakistan, so that it could have taken punitive action against the Iranian terrorists, if those were there.
By opting for launching missile strikes in Pakistan, Iran probably wanted to gain the following: to tell the world that apart from the West Asia, where it had launched missiles/drone strikes in Iraq and Syria on 14/15 January 2024 on the plea that it had hit Intelligence set-up of Israel in the Iraqi Kurdistan and the Islamic State (IS) hideouts in Syria, to project its regional outreach in the Middle East and possibly having misled by India (as on 15 January 2024, Indian Foreign Minister was in Iran to sign Chahbahar port construction agreement), Iran also targeted a village in Pakistan, perhaps to project its outreach in South Asia as well. While Iran’s offensive action had hurt Pakistani people’s conscience, it had also undermined Pakistan’s regional and international standing as a competing regional power with its arch-enemy, India in South Asia.
Therefore, even though Iran is a friendly neighbouring country and our mutual relations were progressing smoothly and quickly, Pakistan had to opt for proper retaliation by targeting Pakistani terrorists’ hideouts in Iran on 17 January 2024. Pakistan had to act to tell the Pakistani terrorists hiding in Iran that they were not safe even there, to ensure the Pakistani people that the state of Pakistan was very strong to defend its prestige, that Iran could realize its grave mistake, to restore Pakistan’s international image undermined by Iran’s missiles strikes and to give a strong message to India to desist from its anti-Pakistan gaming.
In any case, Pakistan gave a tit-for-tat response to Iran’s missile strikes with a heavy heart, being a friendly neighbour and a brotherly Muslim country with a long history of mutual friendship. Pakistan entirely acted out of compulsions of the situation, which Iran’s missile strikes had created. Pakistan felt very happy to retaliate against India’s violation of its sovereignty on 26 February 2019. On that day, the Indian Air Force had launched a so-called surgical strike on Balakot, well within Pakistan’s sovereign territory using Mirage 2000 fighter aircraft in the wee hours, telling lies that there was a terrorist training camp.
In retaliation, while Pakistan denied the existence of any training centre in the area and stated that the IAF’s surgical strike had failed since the bombs had destroyed only a few pine trees, the Pakistan Air Force launched “Operation Swift Retort” on the morning of 27 February 2019 targeting multiple locations in IIOJ&K. When IAF interceptors tried to retaliate, PAF shot down two: a MiG-21 and an SU-30. The debris of the SU-30 fell in IIOJ&K and its pilot was killed. The MiG-21 pilot, Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman, who ejected safely, landed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir and was captured alive. So, India was taught a lesson not to attempt to violate Pakistan’s sovereignty in the future.
Since Pakistan wants to maintain good relations with Iran, it is a good thing that both countries’ Foreign Ministers have spoken to each other on the telephone and decided to lower the tension and restore their friendly relations. In this context the mediation efforts offered by China and Turkey are praiseworthy. It is hoped that both sides will forget this bitterness and work to advance their relations being the Muslim countries, neighbours with a long history of friendly relations, being members of the OIC, the SCO and the ECO, and to support regional peace to better focus on mutually supporting economic development and wellbeing of their people.
—The writer is also a former Research Fellow of IPRI and Senior Research Fellow of SVI, Islamabad
Email: [email protected]
views expressed are writer’s own.
