Iran’s South Asia policy has a major challenge -how to balance between India and Pakistan, the subcontinent’s two nuclear powers, which have already fought three wars to control Jammu and Kashmir, a strategic Himalayan region that both countries claim is their right to govern. Iran’s South Asia policy lies in ambiguity to choose between these two countries as it needs to manage the region’s politics in two different templates- one for India and the other for Pakistan. After a long pause, Iran’s Supreme Leader spoke in June 2017 to mobilize support for the oppressed Muslim communities around the world, including those of Kashmir. “The Muslim world should openly support people of Bahrain, Kashmir, Yemen, etc. and repudiate oppressors and tyrants who attacked people in Ramadan,” the Supreme Leader said in his Ramadan speech, equating the situation in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir with that of Yemen and Bahrain where Iran is backing fellow Shia population against Saudi Arabia-backed regimes. The Eid-ul-Fitr address was posted on Khamenei’s official website on June 26, 2017, with the headline, “Everyone should openly support people of Yemen, Bahrain, and Kashmir: Ayatollah Khamenei.” The last such statement on Kashmir had come in 2010 when Ayatollah Khamenei mentioned Kashmir along with Gaza, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. This statement followed India's vote against Iran at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and New Delhi was seen by Tehran to be descending towards the United States.
Furthermore, the region of Kashmir he spoke about is not controlled by just one country; the total area of Jammu and Kashmir is now divided into three regions and controlled by three different countries. The largest area of the region, 222,236 square kilometers or 45 percent of the total territory of Kashmir falls under Indian administration. Around 35% of the total area of Jammu and Kashmir falls under Pakistan’s control (13,297 km which it calls “Azad Kashmir” and the other northern area spanning 72,971 km known as Gilgit and Baltistan). The remaining 37,244 km known as Aksai Chin falls under Chinese control and constitutes nearly 20 percent of the total area of the region. A small stretch of 6,000 square kilometers of the Shaksgam Valley was ceded to China by Pakistan following the settlement of the China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement in 1963. However, Pakistan claims that it ceded nothing to China; it has rather gained some 1,942 kilometers of land from China by virtue of this agreement.
Interestingly, secular Iran ruled by the Pahlavi Shah had been an open supporter of Pakistan over the disputes with India, including the Kashmir issue. However, the Islamic Revolution under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini opened a new chapter of relations with India by shifting its foreign policy in which Pakistan lost much leverage in Iran’s South Asia policy. Moreover, with the outbreak of violence in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989, the Iranian authorities had their first challenge as to how to design their Kashmir policy balancing its ties with India and Pakistan. The top leadership, therefore, preferred to avoid taking sides and limited their reactions to people’s sufferings, instead of supporting a contestable political solution. For example, in 1990 Ayatollah Khamenei expressed: “Look how everywhere in the world where there is a Muslim community, they receive a much harsher treatment compared with others. Kashmir is a contemporary example for this. Muslims there speak out their rights. Anyone who is informed of what Kashmir has gone through knows what the Muslims of Kashmir express is nothing but truth and justice. Those who silence them, have an unjust cause. Those who attack them are the ones who are committing a wrong act. Ironically, the world is watching all these in cold blood.” The statement, however, abstained from referring to both India and Pakistan and the political positions often taken by the two countries on the issue. Again, on September 11, 1991, Ayatollah Khamenei gave the detail of Iran’s position on Kashmir in which he was more critical of India’s alleged human rights violation of the Kashmiri people, but he again refrained from prescribing any specific political solution, particularly the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolution, a position Pakistan expects all Muslim countries to take. His statement, “For the Islamic Republic of Iran, the issue of Kashmir is an issue of humanity and Islam since the Muslim people of this region are clearly subject to oppression and tyranny and we have always expressed to the government of India our abhorrence to what is being done to the Muslim people of Kashmir and we will continue to express the same feelings in various circles” is obviously found to be avoiding a specific political solution. The April 12, 2001 statement “We hope that the issue of Kashmir will also be solved in the best way which guarantees the rights and interests of the people living in this region so that they will be provided with peace and comfort” is also without specifying any solution.
Read more https://iramcenter.org/en/irans-conflicting-stand-on-the-kashmir-issue/
Furthermore, the region of Kashmir he spoke about is not controlled by just one country; the total area of Jammu and Kashmir is now divided into three regions and controlled by three different countries. The largest area of the region, 222,236 square kilometers or 45 percent of the total territory of Kashmir falls under Indian administration. Around 35% of the total area of Jammu and Kashmir falls under Pakistan’s control (13,297 km which it calls “Azad Kashmir” and the other northern area spanning 72,971 km known as Gilgit and Baltistan). The remaining 37,244 km known as Aksai Chin falls under Chinese control and constitutes nearly 20 percent of the total area of the region. A small stretch of 6,000 square kilometers of the Shaksgam Valley was ceded to China by Pakistan following the settlement of the China-Pakistan Boundary Agreement in 1963. However, Pakistan claims that it ceded nothing to China; it has rather gained some 1,942 kilometers of land from China by virtue of this agreement.
Interestingly, secular Iran ruled by the Pahlavi Shah had been an open supporter of Pakistan over the disputes with India, including the Kashmir issue. However, the Islamic Revolution under the leadership of Ayatollah Khomeini opened a new chapter of relations with India by shifting its foreign policy in which Pakistan lost much leverage in Iran’s South Asia policy. Moreover, with the outbreak of violence in Jammu and Kashmir in 1989, the Iranian authorities had their first challenge as to how to design their Kashmir policy balancing its ties with India and Pakistan. The top leadership, therefore, preferred to avoid taking sides and limited their reactions to people’s sufferings, instead of supporting a contestable political solution. For example, in 1990 Ayatollah Khamenei expressed: “Look how everywhere in the world where there is a Muslim community, they receive a much harsher treatment compared with others. Kashmir is a contemporary example for this. Muslims there speak out their rights. Anyone who is informed of what Kashmir has gone through knows what the Muslims of Kashmir express is nothing but truth and justice. Those who silence them, have an unjust cause. Those who attack them are the ones who are committing a wrong act. Ironically, the world is watching all these in cold blood.” The statement, however, abstained from referring to both India and Pakistan and the political positions often taken by the two countries on the issue. Again, on September 11, 1991, Ayatollah Khamenei gave the detail of Iran’s position on Kashmir in which he was more critical of India’s alleged human rights violation of the Kashmiri people, but he again refrained from prescribing any specific political solution, particularly the implementation of the United Nations Security Council resolution, a position Pakistan expects all Muslim countries to take. His statement, “For the Islamic Republic of Iran, the issue of Kashmir is an issue of humanity and Islam since the Muslim people of this region are clearly subject to oppression and tyranny and we have always expressed to the government of India our abhorrence to what is being done to the Muslim people of Kashmir and we will continue to express the same feelings in various circles” is obviously found to be avoiding a specific political solution. The April 12, 2001 statement “We hope that the issue of Kashmir will also be solved in the best way which guarantees the rights and interests of the people living in this region so that they will be provided with peace and comfort” is also without specifying any solution.
Read more https://iramcenter.org/en/irans-conflicting-stand-on-the-kashmir-issue/
