page_title: Iran–Pakistan relations
section_title: Trade and Economics
hierarchical_section_title: Iran–Pakistan relations / Trade and Economics
caption_attribution_description: English: Modified :Image:Sino-Indian Geography.png, created and published by the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States of America in 2004. The modified version was released by Deepak Gupta under Public Domain. فارسی: برگرفته از ویکی پدیای انگلیسی [1]
context_page_description: After Pakistan gained its independence in August 1947, Iran was one of the first countries to recognize its sovereign status. Relations between Shi'a-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Pakistan became greatly strained due to sectarian tensions in the 1980s, as Pakistani Shi'a Muslims claimed that they were being discriminated against under the Sunni-biased Islamization program being imposed throughout Pakistan by the military dictatorship government of President Zia-ul-Haq. Following the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran and Saudi Arabia gradually began to use Pakistan as a battleground for their proxy sectarian war, and Pakistan's support for the Deobandi Taliban organization in Afghanistan by the 1990s became a problem for Shi'a Iran, which opposed a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
  Nevertheless, both countries continue to cooperate economically where possible and are forming alliances in a number of areas of mutual interest, such as fighting the drug trade along their border and combating the insurgency in the Balochistan region. Iran has also expressed an interest in joining the China–Pakistan Economic Corridor as part of the larger Chinese Belt and Road Initiative.
context_section_description: Relations between Iran and Pakistan improved after the removal of the Taliban in 2002, but tensions remain. Pakistan has been under a strong influence of Saudi Arabia in its competition with Shiite majority Iran for influence across the broader Islamic world, which it already has in its allied nations Lebanon and Syria. Iran considers northern and western Afghanistan as its sphere of influence since its population is Persian Dari speaking. Pakistan considers southern and eastern Afghanistan as its sphere of influence since it is Pashto and Baloch speaking such as the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Baluchistan, respectively.
caption: Modified image of Iran-Pakistan national gas pipeline.
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