On the sidelines of the ongoing war in Gaza, Pakistan reportedly banned the Zainebiyoun Brigade—a Pakistan-based Iran-backed Shia militia group which fought on behalf of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria and beyond.
The news came at a time when Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi is expected to visit Islamabad in late April while Pakistan’s Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif was to Saudi Arabia on his first international visit.
The Zainebiyoun Brigade, along with its sister Shia-militia Fatemiyoun Brigade from Afghanistan, is part of what is seen as a construct known as the ‘Axis of Resistance’. Supported by Iran, both militia groups are small but important parts of the Iranian construct which uses such proxy groups as a core strategy for deterrence across the region. In both Syria and Iraq, the likes of Hezbollah, Kata’ib Hezbollah, Hezbollah al-Nujaba, Kata’ib al Shuhada, Ansar Allah (the Houthis) and now even Hamas, have been a part of Iran’s strategy of deterrence from engaging in a conventional, full-scale conflict with both Israel and the wider Arab world. And these till now have allowed Iran a level of plausible deniability, maintaining that all these political entities are independent groups and make their decisions autonomously.
The Iranian action was packaged as a response to Israel’s strike against its consulate in Damascus, Syria, where a senior IRGC military leader was killed.
Arguably, over the past few years, the Iranian push to surround its interests with these proxies has worked out well. Tehran’s argument justifying its action against Israel was cushioned by invoking Article 51 of the United Nations Charter which outlines the rules and right to self-defence. The Iranian action was packaged as a response to Israel’s strike against its consulate in Damascus, Syria, where a senior IRGC military leader was killed. According to former Iranian diplomat Nosratollah Tajik, the cost of deterrence is considered a kind of investment. The operation was for deterrence.
However, the idea of deterrence, both a conventional and theoretical terminology when studying wars and conflict, seems a little out of place as far as how the Israel–Iran tensions have played out. In fact, deterrence conceptually often works far better on paper than in practice. It can be argued that Iranian blueprints had already been paying large dividends across the region for their strategic interests. The drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil installations in 2019 by the Houthis saw a delayed, and less-than-desired response from the United States (US) to act against such aggressions. This further led to a re-calibration of not just Riyadh’s war in Yemen, where it is now holding direct talks with the Houthis to find a way out, but also for Saudi Arabia and Iran to end their diplomatic thaw and resume relations in a détente brokered by China last year.
Beyond the Saudis, Iran already has working relationships with the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Oman, and even Kuwait, building bridges via diplomacy to have cordial relations. This, of course, does not mean that there are no more fundamental divergences between these Arab states and the seat of power for Shia Islam, but an acceptance for many, that back-sliding towards a wider regional conflict is not in anyone’s long-term economic or political interest. Such a hypothesis is further cemented by the fact that the Abraham Accords, which normalised political ties between Israel and a group of Arab states in 2020, still stands today and has not become a victim of the region’s ongoing conflagrations.
Targeting radar defence sites in Isfahan, for example, is being seen as messaging from Israel that it can reach Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
Then what explains kinetic action-led chase for deterrence? There are two aspects to this. First, from an Israeli point of view, maintaining not just deterrence, but an upper hand against its main regional foe is unanimously seen by the country’s polity as critical and existential. This directly feeds into a sense of security for the Jewish state, something which needs to be urgently rebuilt after the 7 October terror attack by Hamas. The recent retaliatory strikes inside Iran stand as a testament to this view. However, the overarching question remains, whose idea of deterrence prevails, and who sets the agenda for the same? For the moment, Israel has demonstrated its capacity to both clandestinely, and now also conventionally, target deep into Iranian territory successfully. Targeting radar defence sites in Isfahan, for example, is being seen as messaging from Israel that it can reach Iranian nuclear infrastructure.
India’s economy will become carbon neutral by the year 2070, the country’s prime minster has announced at the COP26 climate crisis summit in Glasgow. The target date is two decades beyond what scientists say is needed to avert catastrophic climate impacts. India is the last of the world’s major carbon polluters to announce a net-zero target, with China saying it would reach that goal in 2060, and the United States and the European Union aiming for 2050.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
China's carbon emissions are vast and growing, dwarfing those of other countries. Experts agree that without big reductions in China's emissions, the world cannot win the fight against climate change. In 2020, China's President Xi Jinping said his country would aim for its emissions to reach their highest point before 2030 and for carbon neutrality before 2060. His statement has now been confirmed as China's official position ahead of the COP26 global climate summit in Glasgow. But China has not said exactly how these goals will be achieved.
A crucial U.N. conference heard calls on its first day for the world's major economies to keep their promises of financial help to address the climate crisis, while big polluters India and Brazil made new commitments to cut emissions. World leaders, environmental experts and activists all pleaded for decisive action to halt the global warming which threatens the future of the planet at the start of the two-week COP26 summit in the Scottish city of Glasgow on Monday. The task facing negotiators was made even more daunting by the failure of the Group of 20 major industrial nations to agree ambitious new commitments at the weekend.