By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer
     
A flurry of diplomatic activities is underway between Tehran and Islamabad for the quick release of the Iranian border guards kidnapped by US-Saudi-backed terrorists near Mirjaveh in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan and taken to a hideout across the border in Pakistan.
     On Wednesday, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Pakistani counterpart Maqdoum Shah Mahmoud Hussain Qureshi were on the hotline, after the readiness announced by the Islamic Revolution Guards’ Corps for a joint military operation with the Pakistani armed forces against the terrorists.
     Following the change of guard in Islamabad and the election of Imran Khan as prime minister, this is the first major incident of cross-border terrorism against the Islamic Republic of Iran by terrorists based in Pakistan’s Baluchistan and financed by the unholy Riyadh-Washington-Tel Aviv trinity.
     The latest incident of terrorism against Iran from across its eastern borders seems to be a clumsy bid by Saudi Arabia, or more properly its de facto ruler, Heir Apparent Mohamed bin Salman (MBS) to distract attention from his gruesome murder of dissident Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in Istanbul, Turkey, which is threatening to cause a dangerous diplomatic rift between Riyadh and Ankara, while the US is trying to use all its Machiavellian skills to put the blame on supposedly roguish consular elements, who are likely to executed, in order to give a clear chit to MBS – for more grotesque crimes elsewhere.
      As is evident from the timing of the kidnapping, the nefarious plan of the terrorists and their masters is to force Iran into taking a rash and unilateral cross border military action that would strain the improving trend of Tehran-Islamabad ties.
      Though the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran possess the necessary will, the means, and the expertise for the necessary rescue operation to free the 14 Iranian hostages, they are looking forward to the goodwill of their Pakistani counterparts, especially in view of the frequent exchange over the past year of the two countries’ diplomatic, cultural, trade, security, military and intelligence delegations, for safeguarding regional stability.
      Pakistan also understands that the terrorists and their backers intend to test the resolve of the new government to tackle the sensitive issue, following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to oil-rich Saudi Arabia which depends on a large Pakistani workforce – his first foreign trip after taking over the government – and his meetings with senile King Salman and the imp MBS.
     Pakistani which wisely did not take sides in MBS’ disastrous war in Yemen, has now become fully aware that the Rogue in Riyadh may not survive long in power, especially after his killing of Khashoggi, and even if he does, he is likely to cause embarrassment to Islamabad through his blatant backing of anti-Iranian terrorists, since the view from oil-rich Saudi Arabia of poor Pakistan is that of an ‘Arbab’ who doles out dollars to an insubordinate for dictating policies he likes – including the continued delay in implementing the natural gas pipeline project.
     It is time Islamabad summoned the courage to shun this image of uneven relations, since all factors indicate that Saudi Arabia, which is not a nation born out of people’s will (like Pakistan), nor a geographical region, and neither a culturally cohesive society, but a spurious British creation, may not survive for long.
     Iran and Pakistan share the longest friendly border (959 km) in the whole region with no dispute whatsoever, and therefore to avoid these unsavoury incidents by foreign-backed terrorists the government and security forces of the two countries should coordinate views and measures for weeding out all vestiges of terrorism from Baluchistan.
     A piece of advice for the terrorists. Don’t doubt the determination of Islamic Iran. When your accomplices-in-crimes committed recently in Ahvaz couldn’t escape the vengeance of our counter-terrorism units, whether in Deir ez-Zore, Syria or whether in Iraq’s Diyala, you are merely living on borrowed time and cannot escape their fate.