Its not long when President Zardari paid a visit to Iran, and after a long time some long outstanding issues were settled, at least it seemed. The most important among this was the IPI gas pipeline project, which was under suspension for quite a long time. The domestic energy crisis required this injection badly, and after the visit it was perceived that the work will finally start.
In the past week, one incident has really thrown the whole development back into the ground. An attack on an border town mosque in Iran was the event. Tensions were there, as the elections fever was in full swing, but the attack had nothing to do with that. After some silence, a group named Jundullah has claimed responsibility for the attack, which has really sent Tehran into fury.
Latest was that Iran had closed its border with Pakistan and the two countries have landed into a diplomatic row. Before this thing turns bad, its very important that all the reservation must be addressed. I must mention here that last month, Pakistan did hand over suspects to Iran from this group. The government has to follow two sided approach….1st they have to make sure that if this group is operating, it needs to be uprooted straight away. Secondly, they must stress Tehran to conduct a full scale inquiry, in order to determine that there is no foul play involved, I say this because the project IPI has now changed into IP, for the time being.
At this crucial time, we cannot afford a new diplomatic front, and lets hope that things get settled down.
On our behalf, we are with those who lost there loved ones in this act.
