page_title: Iran–Pakistan relations
section_title: Relations since 2000
hierarchical_section_title: Iran–Pakistan relations / Relations since 2000
caption_attribution_description: English: Pakistan Consul General met with the Mayor of Mashhad - Seyyed Sowlat Mortazavi and Qazi Habib ul-Rahman 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: Since 2000, relations between Iran and Pakistan have begun to normalize, and economic cooperation has strengthened. The September 11 attacks on the United States changed the foreign policy priorities of both Iran and Pakistan. The George W. Bush administration's tough stance forced Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to support Washington's War on terror against the Taliban in Afghanistan, which would end the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in the U.S.-led invasion. Though Iranian officials welcomed the move and deposition of the Taliban, they soon found themselves encircled by U.S. forces in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Central Asia, and the Persian Gulf.
  U.S. President Bush's inclusion of the Islamic Republic of Iran as part of an "axis of evil" also led some Iranian officials to presume that Tehran might be next in line for regime change, ending whatever détente had occurred in Iran–U.S. ties under Khatami. Bush's emphasis on transformative diplomacy and democratization accompanied by an aggressive American military campaign worried Iranian leaders further.
caption: Pakistani Consul General Qazi Habib ul-Rehman meeting with the Mayor of Mashhad, Seyyed Sowlat Mortazavi
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