Category World News

A small but significant piece of news passed by almost unnoticed: the announcement of a new research project on the website of a Washington, DC think tank as Israel loudly beat the drums of war one day before its surprise attack on Iran. The Balochistan Studies Project (BSP) was officially launched on June 12th, according to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). In addition to mentioning Balochistan’s abundance of natural resources, including “oil, gas, uranium, copper, coal, rare earth elements, and the two deep seaports of Gwadar and Chabahar,” MEMRI’s statement also defends the project’s necessity by citing the area as “the ideal outpost to counter and keep Iran’s nuclear ambitions under control and its dangerous relations with Pakistan, which may provide Tehran with tactical nukes.

MEMRI is well known for its careful transcribed translations of screenshots from Arabic, Persian, and Turkish-language media, which frequently end up being shared as memes on social media platforms. The think tank, which was founded in 1998 and has had its founder, Colonel Yigal Carmon, who has spent more than 20 years in the Israeli Military Intelligence Corps, has consistently promoted a pro-Israel agenda. Additionally, MEMRI has been “unofficially” involved in the Israeli state’s intelligence gathering since at least 2012.

In light of this context, MEMRI’s creation of the BSP may serve as an indication that Israel is trying to co-opt the Baloch national struggle against both Iran and Pakistan in order to advance its geopolitical goals. There is a need to examine the limitations of geopolitical thinking within national liberation movements in light of the advantages that a successful co-optation of the Baloch cause would offer Israel and the potential repercussions it might have on the resistance of stateless peoples in the region, including Palestinians and the Baloch themselves.

The BSP announcement from MEMRI contains logical contradictions and falsehoods regarding Balochistan’s actual exploitation and resistance. In contrast, Western companies like Barrick Gold and BHP Billiton have a significant role in enabling colonial resource extraction and ecological destruction in the region, while insisting that “the international community” should understand that Balochistan is a natural ally of the West.

The project’s staff is another good example. Mir Yar Baloch, a “reputated Baloch writer, scholar, and political scientist,” is described as a “special adviser” in one article on the BSP website of MEMRI. Baloch made headlines in May of this year when he unilaterally declared Balochistan’s independence in a number of posts on X, and he also revealed to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that India had “the backing of 60 million Baloch patriots” following Operation Sindoor against Pakistan.

Mir Yar Baloch is intriguing for the mystery that surrounds him, given his alleged status as a significant and influent Baloch intellectual, more than for his grand pronouncements. None of the outlets that have covered him have resisted repurposing a biography as sparingly as the one published in the MEMRI article, despite being profiled by a number of news outlets, especially those that are all Indian. However, more well-known Baloch activists have been vocal about their disapproval of him. For instance, Nissan Baloch of the Baloch National Movement stated on X that Baloch leaders do not have a common ground for declaring independence. Additionally, he specifically listed four “fake accounts,” including Mir Yar Baloch’s, that he claimed “should be reported and unfollowed immediately.” Therefore, Kabo activists speculate that Mir Yar Baloch was a fabricated persona by a state with regional interests to support its goals.

Balochistan, a region that spans Iran and Pakistan’s border, is where both nations engage in counterinsurgency campaigns, which frequently cause tensions between them. Each has claimed that allowing militant groups to cross the border to foster instability has been done by one. On both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border, many Baloch people view themselves as marginalized and systematically oppressed by the states they are in.

In this context, an Israeli support for the Baloch cause opens up new avenues for establishing Israeli influence in the region’s wider West. Beyond the Iranian state and security apparatus, Israel’s infiltration, which was clearly demonstrated by the events of June 13, allows Israel to establish diplomatic ties with sectarian organizations in areas with limited Iranian and Pakistani political legitimacy. Support for these groups also creates conditions that allow Israel to actively undermine efforts to build transnational solidarity among Palestinians and other stateless populations, such as the Baloch, in light of Israel’s goal of containing and overthrowing Palestinian resistance.

Israel’s strategic partnership with India, which has long established itself as a major supporter of the Baloch cause, has notably undermined efforts to build bridges between the Baloch and stateless peoples who have been forced to live under Indian rule, such as Kashmiris, to support any gesture Israel makes toward Balochistan. In a significant way, Mir Yar Baloch, who has tweeted support for Israel and India, almost exclusively owes his public image to the Indian media. Additionally, his messages are overwhelmingly directed at Indian audiences. Thus, the BSP serves as an example of how India and Israel’s strategic partnership is reflected in an Israeli and Indian cross-regional influence projection.

I don’t dispute the importance of geopolitics in developing resistance strategies and capacity-building, but making it a top priority can be detrimental. A “my enemy’s enemy is my friend” mentality could undermine long-term, principled alliances. A statement made by Sadiq al-Azm that the Palestine Liberation Organization’s (PLO) alliance with Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was “unprincipled” alienated Kurds and indirectly contributed to the establishment of relatively warm relations between Israel and the Kurdistan Regional Government in Iraq. Concerns about possible collaboration with Israel were raised more recently in Iran’s crackdown on Kurdish and, to a lesser extent, Baloch organizations.

Therefore, a post-geopolitical approach to formulating foreign policy among stateless groups would have to consider the nation-states’ factory defect, which requires that survival and the preservation of a constellation of privileges and interests over a meaningful struggle for justice. A principled anticolonial inter- and transnationalism that transcends geopolitics is not a utopian ideal that is detached from the realities of conflict in this context. Instead, it is a long-term pragmatism in and of itself that challenges the short-term gains made by placing geopolitics above principles.

“I’m breaking, just like Gaza is now breaking.” Because of Israel’s blockade of essential aid, our reporters in Gaza are having a hard time finding food. When he leaves the camera, Hani Mahmoud shows us what life is like in Gaza.

In response to concerns that the three European countries might re-engage with Iranian diplomats in nuclear negotiations, according to warnings made by the three countries’ previous 2015 agreements.

The meeting, which is taking place in Turkiye’s Istanbul on Friday morning, is the first since Israel launched an intense 12-day conflict in which the United States militarily intervened on behalf of Israel and attacked important Iranian nuclear sites, starting in mid-June.

Top commanders, nuclear scientists, and hundreds of civilians were killed as a result of Israel’s offensive, which also affected residential areas and caused the US-Iran nuclear talks to end in April.

Iran claimed on Friday that the meeting will give the so-called E3 group from Germany, the UK, and France the chance to change their positions on Iran’s nuclear issue. According to Esmaeil Baghaei, a spokesperson for the foreign ministry, Iran considers the discussion of extending UN Security Council Resolution 2231 to be both “meaningless and baseless.”

The resolution is scheduled to expire in October, ratifying the 2015 agreement Iran and the world powers reached in exchange for urgent sanctions relief. It guarantees the right of the big powers to rescind UN sanctions.

The “snapback mechanism,” which would reinstate the sanctions against Iran by the end of August, was reportedly threatened by the E3 since then as a result of the moribund 2015 nuclear agreement that US President Donald Trump unilaterally tore up in his first term.

Tehran has warned of the consequences if the E3 chooses to activate the snapback, and the option expires in October.

This week, senior Iranian diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi and Iranian deputy foreign minister Kazem Gharibabadi warned that enacting sanctions “is completely illegal.”

After the US withdrew from the deal, he also accused the European countries of “halting their commitments.”

Gharibabadi stated, “We have warned them of the risks, but we are still looking for common ground to manage the situation.”

Tehran’s warning

Iranian diplomats have previously warned that Tehran might withdraw from the world’s nuclear non-proliferation treaty if UN sanctions are reinstated.

Iran’s already constrained economy would be put under more pressure if sanctions were to be reinstated, which would increase its standing abroad.

Gideon Saar, the foreign minister of Israel, has urged the world to activate the mechanism. Two days before Tehran and Washington were scheduled to meet for a sixth round of nuclear negotiations, Israel launched an attack on Iran on June 13.

Fordow, Isfahan, and Natanz were among the US nuclear facilities that were struck on June 22.

Prior to the conflict, Washington and Tehran had differences regarding uranium enrichment, which Iran has called a “non-negotiable” right for civilian purposes, while the US called it a “red line.”

Iran enriches uranium to a 60% purity, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), far above the 3.67 percent cap set forth in the 2015 agreement’s requirement for weapons-grade levels.

Tehran has stated that it is not interested in negotiating uranium enrichment rates and levels.

Iran reportedly began reversing its commitments a year after the US pulled out of the nuclear deal, which had put restrictions on its nuclear activities in exchange for sanctions relief.

Iran is accused of pursuing nuclear weapons by Israel and Western powers, a charge Tehran has consistently refuted. In the run-up to the June conflict, both US intelligence and the IAEA claimed to have seen no indication of Iran’s intention to develop nuclear weapons.

Enrichment is “stopped.”

Iran insists it will continue to maintain its nuclear program, which Abbas Araghchi, the country’s foreign minister, dubbed “national pride.”

The US bombing’s full scope of damage is still a mystery. Trump has claimed that the sites have been “completely destroyed,” but US media reports have cast doubt on how much of the destruction has been done.

According to Araghchi, enrichment is currently “stopped” due to “serious and severe” harm to nuclear sites brought on by US and Israeli attacks.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian stated in an interview with Al Jazeera on Wednesday that Iran was ready for another war and that it would continue to use its nuclear arsenal in accordance with international law. He added that the nation had no intention of pursuing nuclear weapons.

Iran has stopped cooperating with the IAEA because of the 12-day conflict, accusing it of being biased and not to condemn the attacks.

Inspectors have since left the nation, but a technical team is expected to return in the coming weeks, as per Iran’s promise that future cooperation will take “new form.”

As Thailand and Cambodia fight head-on, desperate evacuees have reported being surrounded by thunderous artillery bombardments.

More than 100, 000 people were forced to leave their homes across four Thai border provinces on Friday as a result of the worst fighting in more than a decade between the neighboring nations.

Thousands of people from northeastern Surin province renounced their homes for makeshift shelters built in the town center on Thursday as a result of artillery fire.

Nearly 3, 000 people packed onto rows of plastic mats covered in colorful blankets and hastily gathered things in Surindra Rajabhat University’s sports hall.

Thidarat Homhuan, 37, told the AFP news agency, “I’m concerned about our home, our animals, and the crops we’ve worked so hard on.”

She eluded nine members of her family, including her grandmother, who had just come out of a hospital, who was 87.

“That concern persists,” he said. However, because we are now further away from the danger zone, being here makes it feel safer. We’re at least safe, she said.

When she first heard what she described as “something like machinegun fire,” followed by heavy artillery thuds, Thidarat was babysitting at a nearby school.

“There was chaos,” he said. The children feared for their lives. She said, “I rushed to the bunker at the school.”

Evacuees slept next to each other in the shelter beneath the gym’s high ceiling, surrounded by loud electric fans and hushed rumors.

Children played quietly in the shade of blankets, while infants slept in cradles, and the elderly were lying in blankets. In mesh crates close to the public restroom, pet cats sat nearby.

According to Chai Samoraphum, the president’s office director, this is the first full year the university has been operating as a shelter.

The campus quickly changed into a functioning evacuation center after classes were immediately canceled.

Six locations on the campus were used to distribute evacuees from four border districts.

The majority of them departed quickly. Some people have chronic illnesses but didn’t bring their medications, while others only managed to grab a few things, Chai told AFP.

Chai explained that the center offers mental health services to trauma victims and care for those who have chronic illnesses with the provincial hospital’s assistance.

According to reports from Thailand’s officials, at least 14 people have been killed in border fighting, including one soldier and two civilians who were killed in a rocket attack close to a petrol station in Sisaket province. It is confirmed that there was also a Cambodian fatality.

Evacuees are unsure of their ability to return home as fighting continues near the border.

The shelter offers safety and a place to wait for confirmations that it’s safe to “go back to normal life,” according to Thidarat.

She already wants the government to take swift action, saying, “Do not wait until lives are lost.

She said, “We rely on the government very much for protection, and we look up to it.”