Pakistan has audacity to warn India over Chabahar Port !!
Pakistan got a solid whiplashing from India during Operation Sindoor. However like the proverbial DOG’S TAIL, it will not straighten. Afresh it has shown real audacity by warning India on Friday against using Chabahar Port to promote cross-border militancy in the restive region of Pakistan Occupied Balochistan, even when Baloch Liberation forces are intensifying their effort to drive out the Occupation Forces.
With the USA Forces running away and fall of Kabul to the Taliban in August 2021,, the regional calculus shifted drastically. Over the past four years, the Taliban has reached out to major powers on the issue of Chabahar, which also featured in talks during the recent India visit by the acting Foreign Minister of Afghanistan Mr Amir Khan Muttaqi.
In September, the U.S. Department of State had grandly announced that it would revoke the waiver for Indian operations at Chabahar that was offered by Mr. Trump in 2018. The move would expose anyone associated with the Chabahar project to U.S. sanctions under their Iran Freedom and Counter-Proliferation Act, with effect from September 29.
However fearful of total rejection of the American sanction on Chabahar, it seems sudden wisdom downed on the USA Administration and it took a decision to “extend the waiver” by six months on Chabahar. Now Afghanistan is assured that supplies to Afghanistan, especially essential items like food grains and medical products, will continue through Chabahar. Without this Taliban would have been forced to take action deemed fit. Pakistan would have suffered drastic direct consequences.
Chabahar Port is a key trade route to Afghanistan that bypasses Pakistan.India signed a 10-year contract with Iran last year to develop and operate the port and this month stepped up its engagement with Afghanistan by reopening its embassy in Kabul, which was closed after the eviction of USA in 2021. The port on Iran’s southeastern Gulf of Oman coast was initially planned with a rail link to Afghanistan to help build the landlocked country’s economy through trade and reduce Kabul’s dependence on Pakistani ports.
The USA “waiver” was welcomed by Indian authorities after Washington said it was seeking to reach a broader trade deal with New Delhi following tariff disputes caused by Trump.
However now Pakis seem to be visibly annoyed by the USA. Addressing his weekly news conference, Paki foreign office spokesman Tahir Andrabi said Pakistan had taken note of the development.
“First of all, let me make one point clear. We welcome any decision that leads to the economic development and improvement of trade and business prospects in our brotherly country of Iran,” he said, adding that it was Washington’s sovereign decision to grant the waiver as the country that had originally imposed sanctions…..as if other Sovereign Countries like India will simply get dictated by such trash.
“We would warn India to not use or abuse this opening to promote terrorism, subversion, particularly the terrorism and subversion of Fitnah Al-Hindustan, into Pakistan through the adjacent borders,” he continued, referring to Baloch Liberation Forces such as the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA). “India has promoted cross-border terrorism from this area into Pakistan in the past. It must desist in doing so in the future”– accused the Pakis, off balanced by close cooperation between Afghanistan and India.
Balochistan, forcibly occupied by Pakistan in 1948, has been deliberately kept undeveloped inspite of rich mineral resources. It has long been plagued by Liberation movement that has intensified in recent months, with Liberation Forces increasingly targeting Paki security personnel, Paki government officials, infrastructure, and Paki and Chinese citizens.
Balochistan is strategically significant for its vast mineral wealth and as a transit hub being developed the multibillion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Islamabad accuses India of backing Baloch Liberation operating in the region, a charge New Delhi denies.
Andrabi also said Pakistan had taken notice of an ongoing military exercise by Indian forces near the border, adding that Pakistan’s military was keeping a close watch. It shows that they are literally shivering, anticipating Operation Sindoor Part 2. Their terrorist friends have already cancelled the planned conclave in various Paki cities.
“Any misadventure by India will be tackled with a quid pro quo-plus response,” he warned. “We have assured it before and we can assure it again.”
Trump has been patting his back and claiming that it was he who had brokered Ceasefire during Sindoor but his white lies have been exposed fully……Sindoor 2 when it happens must now aim to cut away this tail itself.
