Iran Summons Pakistan's Envoy Over Zahedan's Suicide Bomb Attack

 Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)
Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)
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Iran Summons Pakistan's Envoy Over Zahedan's Suicide Bomb Attack

 Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)
Funeral of the dead Revolutionary Guards soldiers in the city of Isfahan on Saturday, February 16, 2019. (AFP)

Iran took advantage of the bombing, which targeted Zahedan last Wednesday and killed 27 Revolutionary Guards soldiers, to accuse Pakistan of being involved in the attack.

To protest the bombing, Tehran summoned the Pakistani ambassador on Sunday.

"Jaish al Adl" which says it seeks greater rights and better living conditions for the ethnic minority Baluchis, claimed responsibility for the attack earlier.

Iran says militant groups operate from safe havens in Pakistan.

“The government of Pakistan must pay the price of harboring these terrorist groups and this price will undoubtedly be very high,” Iranian state television quoted Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari as saying.

Jafari blamed Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency, saying that “sheltering and silence” amounts to supporting the perpetrators.

Jafari also accused Saudi Arabia and UAE of supporting opposition groups that attack Iranian forces, threatening to retaliate against them over the attack.

Saudi Political Analyst Dr. Khaled al-Habbas told Asharq Al-Awsat that Iran is trying to adopt a counter-strategy due to international and regional pressures, which left it in a state of frustration.

“The recently held Warsaw meeting had one main objective, which is facing Iranian regional threats,” Habbas stressed, noting that it added pressures on Tehran.

“Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the countries seeking to highlight the destructive Iranian role in the region, so it is easy for Iran to indict Riyadh and Abu Dhabi only to try to adopt a counter-policy," he said.

Dr. Habbas did not rule out that the regime’s accusations against Pakistan aim to disrupt the upcoming Saudi Crown Prince’s visit to the country.

Researcher on terror affairs Dr. Yousef al-Rumaih, for his part, told Asharq Al-Awsat that the Iranian regime always tries to influence the public opinion by raising baseless accusations against foreign parties, in hope to overcome its internal issues.

He said that everyone knows the size of internal and foreign opposition against the Iranian regime, in addition to its many economic and social problems, so it accuses other parties to find a way out of the crisis.



WTO Chief Okonjo-Iweala Reinstated for Second Term as Trade Wars Loom

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (AFP)
World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (AFP)
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WTO Chief Okonjo-Iweala Reinstated for Second Term as Trade Wars Loom

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (AFP)
World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala (AFP)

World Trade Organization chief Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala was reappointed for a second term at a special meeting on Friday, the trade watchdog said, meaning her tenure will coincide with US President-elect Donald Trump's second administration.
Analysts expect the road ahead for the three-decade-old WTO will be challenging, likely characterised by trade wars with Trump, who returns to the White House on Jan. 20, threatening hefty tariffs on goods from Mexico, Canada and China.
Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance minister who made history in 2021 by becoming the WTO's first female and first African director-general, announced in September that she would run again, aiming to complete “unfinished business.”
No other candidates ran against her and all of the WTO's 166 members agreed by consensus to a proposal to reappoint her.
Trade sources said the meeting created a means of fast-tracking her appointment process to avoid any risk of it being blocked by Trump, whose teams and allies have criticised both Okonjo-Iweala and the WTO in the past.
In 2020, his administration gave its support to a rival candidate and sought to block her first term. She secured US backing only when President Joe Biden succeeded Trump in the White House in January 2021.
President Joe Biden on Thursday warned against damaging relations with Canada and Mexico, after Donald Trump threatened to slap tariffs on both US neighbors when he takes office in January.
“I think it's a counterproductive thing to do,” Biden told reporters when asked about his successor's plan.
“The last thing we need to do is begin to screw up those relationships. I think we got them in a good place,” he said during a visit to a fire department in Nantucket, Massachusetts, where he is spending his last Thanksgiving holiday as president.
Trump sent jitters through global markets on Monday when he announced on social media that one of his first presidential actions would be to impose 25-percent tariffs on Mexico and Canada -- which share a free trade pact with the United States -- and add a 10-percent tariff on China.
Pledging that tariffs would only be removed from the US neighbors when illegal immigration and drug trafficking stop, he reaffirmed his intent to use trade as a cudgel against allies and rivals alike.
After expressing opposition to Trump's threats in a letter, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke by phone with the Republican president-elect on Wednesday.
Trump claimed that Sheinbaum had agreed to “stop migration through Mexico, and into the United States, effectively closing our Southern Border.”
When asked about the dispute at her daily press conference on Thursday, Sheinbaum said: “I can assure you... that we would never -- we would not be capable -- of proposing that we were going to close the border.”
Biden on Thursday also talked about the importance of maintaining a working relationship with China.
“We've set up a hotline between President Xi and myself, as well as our military, a direct line,” Biden said, adding he was "confident" that his Chinese counterpart “doesn't want to make a mistake.”
“I'm not saying that he is our best buddy, but he understands what's at stake.”