The Iran Watcher<\/p>\n
The Islamic Republic is losing Pakistan, a once-friendly neighbour that is now aligning against the regime and its Houthi proxy.<\/p>\n
Pakistan now says it will follow all applicable sanctions regimes against Iran. That is a clear retreat from its earlier refusal to recognize unilateral United States sanctions and its promises to expand trade with the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
The shift is particularly humiliating because Pakistan previously acted as the regime\u2019s diplomatic lifeline. It brokered the June Islamabad Memorandum between the Islamic Republic and the United States, giving the regime an off-ramp from war and isolation. That agreement collapsed, and Pakistan is now moving closer to the states threatened by the Islamic Republic.<\/p>\n
The military shift is even more damaging. On August 7, Pakistan joined Saudi Arabia and Turkey in a collective-defence pact declaring that an attack on one will be treated as an attack on all.<\/p>\n
Pakistan has since condemned Houthi attacks on Saudi Arabia, warned the Islamic Republic to restrain its proxy and pledged to defend Saudi Arabia by \u201cwhatever means are available.\u201d Its defence minister went further, declaring that any enemy of Saudi Arabia is an enemy of Pakistan.<\/p>\n
The latest attack on a power station supplying the Prophet\u2019s Mosque in Medina has hardened that position. Pakistan called it a grave provocation and demanded that the attacks stop immediately.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Republic spent years using the Houthis to threaten Saudi Arabia while denying control whenever the consequences arrived. That deniability is no longer protecting it. Pakistan now places Saudi security and the protection of Islam\u2019s holy cities above preserving its old relationship with the regime.<\/p>\n
Pakistan has not severed diplomatic relations, but the direction is unmistakable. A neighbour that once brokered an agreement for the Islamic Republic is now complying with sanctions, joining Saudi Arabia\u2019s defence architecture and warning that it may confront the regime\u2019s most important Arab proxy.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Republic\u2019s proxy strategy is not expanding its influence. It is turning former partners into potential adversaries.<\/p>\n
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