February 13, 2025: In early 2025 Iran and Pakistan agreed to cooperate on economic, diplomatic and military matters. Each country has different definitions of these items. While both nations border Afghanistan, Iran has far fewer problems with the Afghans. Iran recently agreed to upgrade their relations with the new IEA or Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan government. The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan is more radical religiously and imposes a strict version of Islamic Sharia law on Afghans. This has led to cutoffs of foreign aid and most nations refusing to establish diplomatic relations.

Iran is trying to peacefully reestablish good relations with the IEA government. Afghanistan and Iran have some border and water rights disputes. Iran wants Afghan refugees in Iran to return home and the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan is willing to help with that in return for better diplomatic and trade relationships as well as a serious and final effort to agree on their mutual 900 kilometers border.

Pakistan has more serious problems with Afghanistan, with Pakistan accusing the Islamic Emirate Afghanistan of tolerating TTP Islamic terrorists that make attacks into Pakistan. The IEA denies supporting the TTP and admits that its security forces are not numerous enough to eliminate the TTP while also maintaining order in the rest of Afghanistan.

Iran and Pakistan share a common 900 kilometer border that ends at the Arabian Sea. Pakistan accuses Iran of not doing enough to eliminate Pakistani Baluchi separatists from maintaining bases in Iran. While these Balochi bases have been tolerated, or simply ignored for years, the Iran-Pakistan talks have resulted in Iranian attacks on the Baluchi groups on the Iranian side of the border. In the past Baluchi separatists have made trouble in Iran as well. Now Iran and Pakistan are in agreement to coordinate efforts to reduce or eliminate Baluchi separatists on both sides of the border.

Both Iran and Pakistan have serious internal problems. Iran has been subject to economic sanctions for decades. The Iranian economy is a mess, despite oil income. The sanctions mean Iran has to smuggle out its oil exports and gets less money for it than other oil exporting nations. Worse, the sanctions have blocked the import of equipment and services needed to keep the oil and natural gas fields operational. Currently those problems are shutting down more and more Iranian oil wells and natural gas pumping operations. This has reached the point where there is no natural gas for over a dozen power plants that burn natural gas. This means less electricity and less fuel to keep Iranians warm in the cold weather months.

Another mutual concern is Islamic terrorism. Twenty nations account for over 95 percent of terrorism activity in the world. Of these twenty, which include Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, South Sudan, Yemen, Iran, Uganda, Libya, Egypt, Nigeria, Palestinian Territories, Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Colombia, Algeria, Thailand, Philippines, Russia, Sudan, Iran, Burundi, India, Nigeria and Israel, all but the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, Colombia and Burundi involve Islamic terrorism. In terms of terrorism fatalities, the top four nations are Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Somalia account for about 70 percent of the world total. All of this was the result of Islamic radicalism, often directed at other Moslems, and not just non-Moslems or infidels.

This has been the case for decades, and the Moslem world does not like to dwell on this fact. Many Moslem leaders admit that there is a lot of Islamic terrorism but insist that it’s all the fault of Infidels who are making war on Islam, so some Moslems feel compelled to fight back. The catch-phrase Moslem leaders like to repeat is that Islam is the religion of peace. It is not, and the historical record makes that very clear. The Islamic scriptures incorporated in the Koran explicitly call for violence against Infidels who refuse to accept Islam. For Iranians this is a problem because Iranians are Shia Moslems while most Moslems are Sunni. Normally Sunni and Shia get along, but these differences can be exploited by government or religious leaders and often are when such strife is needed.