WASHINGTON DC – Instead of easing economic sanctions against Tehran the United States should arm minority groups inside the country and help them fight for rights against the Islamic Republic, said Wahid Baloch, president of the Baloch Society of North America (BSO-NA).
“Instead of pacifying the Iranian mullahs by removing the sanctions against Iran the US should support the Iranian opposition groups and arm Baloch and other minorities to help them in their fight for freedom and justice,” said Baloch, whose group lobbies in Washington DC on behalf of ethnic Balochis who are scattered in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
“This will produce better and long-lasting results for the peace and security of the entire region than pacifying these mullahs,” he told Rudaw.
Early Sunday, Iran struck a historic deal with the US and five other world powers, accepting to constrain its nuclear program in return for an easing of international sanctions.
“Baloch resistance groups and dissidents in Iran and Pakistan are fighting for complete independence from both Pakistan and Iran,” Baloch said. “They don't want to be a part of Pakistan or Iran as their language, traditions and culture are completely different,” he added.
The Balochistan region is a large swath of strategic land divided among Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan. The overall population of Balochis is unknown, but is estimated to be around 25 million. Several militant groups in these countries claim to be fighting for a “Greater Balochistan.”
Dissident Baloch groups charge Iran and Pakistan with discrimination and marginalization of the minority. Iran, in particular, has always had an uneasy relationship with its minorities, which include Kurds and other ethnic groups.
“The Balochis consider both Iran and Pakistan as foreign occupiers of their land (Balochistan), and they are fighting to free and unite Balochistan into one piece instead of being divided between Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan,” Baloch said.
Balochis, who are predominantly Sunni, have long lived under tight security constraints in Shiite Iran. They complain that their communities languish in extreme poverty and their region is one of the least developed in Iran. Balochistan is located at the center of a major drug and gun smuggling corridor between Afghanistan and Iran.
Deadly clashes, violence, bombings and kidnappings have tainted Iranian Balochistan for decades. Last month, Iran executed 16 Baloch prisoners, after Tehran claimed that 14 border guards killed in an ambush were attacked by Iranian Baloch militia groups.
Nasser Boladai of the Sweden-based Balochistan Peoples Party and Congress told Rudaw: “Ask any Baloch and their dream is a united Balochistan. But given the situation of Balochis, Kurds, Lurs, Arabs and Azeris in Iran, it is best to create a secularist federal state in Iran.”
Baloch, meanwhile, believes that the lack of a powerful lobby in the US is the main factor Washington is unaware of their cause.
“The most important thing is the lack of resources, like hiring powerful lobbyists and influential think tanks to take up Balochistan's case in the US Congress,” he said.
In 2012, a small group of US congressmen introduced a bill stating that the “Baloch nation” had a historic right to self-determination and called on Congress to recognize Baloch independence. But the US administration quickly distanced itself from the bill, saying it was not its policy to support Baloch independence.
“It was an historic joke with the Baloch people,” said Baloch. “They were given false hope that the US Government is on their side.”
Boladai said that even though the Balochistan areas in Iran and Pakistan claim ample natural resources in both countries, they still remain among the most impoverished and militarized.
“We, the Baloch of Iran, are in the first stage of reaching out to the world to make sure the world understands that there is a Baloch people and they have been suppressed and discriminated against because of their religion and nationality,” said Boladai.
In recent years Jundullah, an Islamic armed group, has been active alongside the Iranian border and Boladai believes that their fight too is a reaction to Iran's discrimination against the Sunnis in that region.
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