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.
