PAKISTAN

Stance on Iran

Editorial 

Published January 31, 2026 

DAWN

WHILE the US continues to mull a new attack against Iran, it is welcome that the upper echelons of the Pakistani state have made clear their stance against aggression targeting the neighbouring country. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif spoke to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Thursday, reaffirming the need for “sustained dialogue and diplomatic engagement” at this critical time.

The foreign ministers of both states also had a phone conversation, with Ishaq Dar emphasising that diplomacy was “the only viable way forward”. Meanwhile, a Foreign Office statement correctly pointed out that “this region cannot afford war”, adding that Pakistan opposes “the use of force … against Iran” as well as interference in Iran’s internal affairs.

Pakistan’s stance is in line with the regional consensus, as previously both Saudi Arabia and the UAE have stated that their soil and facilities will not be used against the Islamic Republic. Turkiye is similarly ramping up diplomatic efforts; the Turkish foreign minister hosted his Iranian counterpart on Friday in an effort to prevent the march towards a new, devastating regional war.

Pakistan has a long border with Iran, and any instability in the region will directly affect this country. While there have been ups and downs, the Pakistan-Iran relationship has been largely cordial. Along with a joint frontier, both nations share historical, cultural and spiritual ties. Moreover, Pakistan has displayed moral clarity by opposing foreign intervention against a sovereign state. The Gulf monarchies are similarly wary of the fallouts of an American attack, mainly because senior Iranian officials have said US bases in the region will be targeted if Iran is attacked.

However, there are media reports that suggest the Americans are trying to pressure Riyadh into quietly acquiescing to a US attack. The Saudi defence minister is currently in Washington. The US should abandon its threatening posture against Iran and come to the table while respecting Iran’s sovereignty. The Iranians say they have drawn lessons from last year’s US-Israeli aggression, and will hit back harder.

Hence, the American presumption that this will be a short, clean campaign is erroneous; any war will be bloody and incredibly destructive for the global economy. Yet Iran must also make efforts to address the legitimate grievances of its people and improve the rights situation, though any change must be internal, and not orchestrated from abroad.

Published in Dawn, January 31st, 2026

Iran considers EU armies as ‘terrorist groups’ in retaliatory move

Reuters 

 February 1, 2026 


Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf looks on after a press conference with Lebanese Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, in Beirut, Lebanon on October 12, 2024. —Reuters/File

Iran considers as “terrorist groups” the armies of EU countries that listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on the bloc’s list of terrorist organisations, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf said on Sunday.

The EU marked a symbolic shift in its approach to Iran’s leadership on Thursday by designating the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, following what turned out to be one of the country’s deadliest crackdowns of protests since its establishment in 1979.

Iran Nuances

@IranNuances

#Iran's Parliament Speaker: Under the law of reciprocal action against designating the #IRGC as a terrorist organization, the armies of European countries are considered terrorist entities. The EU will bear full responsibility for the consequences of this move.

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Iran Nuances

@IranNuances

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4h

Members of #Iran's Parliament wore #IRGC uniforms in today's session to protest against the EU's decision to designate the IRGC as a 'terrorist organization'.

12:07 AM · Feb 1, 2026

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“By trying to hit the Revolutionary Guards … the Europeans actually shot themselves in the foot and once again made a decision against the interests of their people by blindly obeying the Americans,” Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf told his fellow MPs, all wearing Revolutionary Guards uniforms in support of the elite force.

“According to Article 7 of the law on countermeasures against the designation of the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organisation, the armies of European countries are considered terrorist groups.”

Qalibaf added that the national security parliamentary commission would deliberate on the expulsion of EU countries’ military attaches and follow up on the issue with the foreign ministry.

Set up after Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution to protect the ruling system, the IRGC have great sway in the country, controlling swathes of the economy and armed forces.

Demonstrators in Milan protest ICE unit at Winter Olympics

COLLEEN BARRY
Sat, January 31, 2026 


A person holds a sign, during an Anti-ICE demonstration, ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

People take part in an Anti-ICE demonstration, ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

People take part in an Anti-ICE demonstration, ahead of the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Saturday, Jan. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni)(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

MILAN (AP) — Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Saturday in Milan to protest the deployment of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents during the upcoming Winter Olympics, unbothered by the fact that agents would be stationed in a control room and not operating on the streets.

The protest in Piazza XXV Aprile, a square named for the date of Italy’s liberation from Nazi fascism in 1945, drew people from the left-leaning Democratic Party, the CGIL trade union confederation and the ANPI organizations that protect the memory of Italy’s partisan resistance during World War II, along with many other people.

Organizers handed out plastic whistles, which participants blew as music blared from a van. The protest was as much against the news that agents from a division of ICE would participate in security for the U.S. delegation as against what many of those present said they saw as creeping fascism in the United States

“No thank you, from Minnesota to the world, at the side of anyone who fights for human rights,’’ read one banner. “Never again means never again for anyone,’’ read another, and “Ice only in Spritz,’’ a reference to a popular aperitif, read yet another.

The ICE agents to be deployed to Milan are not from the same unit as the immigration agents cracking down in Minnesota and other U.S. cities.

News of the deployment of ICE agents has provoked a backlash in Italy. Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala has said they were not welcome. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi has been called to Parliament to testify about the deployment this week.

Protester Silvana Grassi held a sign that read “Ice = Gestapo.” She said the scenes of ICE agents in Minneapolis shooting and killing protesters and detaining children were deeply upsetting.

“It makes me want to cry to think of it,’’ Grassi said. “It’s too terrible. How did they elect such a terrible, evil man?’’

Homeland Security Investigations, an ICE unit that focuses on cross-border crimes, frequently sends its officers to overseas events like the Olympics to assist with security. The ICE arm at the forefront of the immigration crackdown in the U.S. is known as Enforcement and Removal Operations, and there is no indication its officers are being sent to Italy.

“Even if it’s not the same ones, we don’t want them here,’’ Grassi said.

Paolo Bortoletto, also holding a banner, was aware that the officers would have an investigative and not a street role.

Still, he said, “We don’t want them in our country. We are a peaceful country. We don’t want fascists. It’s their ideas that bother us."

Democrats flip Texas state Senate seat in shock upset

Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a machinist and Air Force veteran, defeated Southlake Republican to fill the vacant state Senate seat

Julia Mueller
Sat, January 31, 2026 

Democrats scored a stunning upset on Saturday in a special election runoff for Texas Senate, according to a projection from Decision Desk HQ, giving the party a major boost ahead of the November midterms.

Fort Worth Democrat Taylor Rehmet, a machinist and Air Force veteran, defeated Southlake Republican Leigh Wambsganss to fill the vacant state Senate District 9.

The district favored President Trump — who endorsed Wambsganss earlier on Saturday — by 17 points in 2024. The race went to a runoff after none of the candidates were able to clinch a majority in the November election.

Rehmet’s overperformance in the fall stoked concerns for the GOP, and a number of prominent party leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott (R), intervened in the race in an effort to boost Wambsganss.

“When a grassroots union organizer like Taylor Rehmet overperforms by almost 20 points and forces a runoff, it couldn’t be any clearer that voters are tired of Republican bullshit,” Texas Democratic Party Chairman Kendall Scudder said in a statement after the November race.

Rehmet’s victory is sure to fuel Democratic optimism heading into the midterms, where the party is hoping to flip the House and potentially even the Senate amid growing anxiety over the economy and anger over Trump’s immigration policies.

The seat opened up after Republican state Sen. Kelly Hancock was tapped as acting state comptroller.

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 

Houston Democrat wins former Rep. Sylvester Turner’s seat ahead of contested primary

Liz Crampton
Sat, January 31, 2026 

POLITICO US

Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee, a Democrat, won a special runoff election on Saturday to serve the remainder of former Texas Rep. Sylvester’s term, who died last year.

The Associated Press projected that Menefee beat Amanda Edwards, an attorney and former member of the Houston City council, after a protracted process to fill the central Houston seat after Turner's death in March 2025. The process was drawn out by GOP Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to quickly schedule a special election following Turner’s death and a crowded field that triggered a runoff following the first round of voting in November.

But the contest between the pair will continue: Both Menefee, 37, and Edwards, 44, are participating in the March primary for a newly refashioned 18th Congressional District, going up against Rep. Al Green, 78. That winner will be heavily favored to win a full two-year term in November.

The March primary is the latest example of the generational change debate animating the Democratic Party, as the two young Democrats take on progressive icon Green, who has been in Congress for more than two decades. It's a fight that’s taking place nationwide, pitting young and old factions of the party against each other as they both argue they’re better fighters against Republicans.

Residents in this district have been without consistent representation since former Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee died in 2024. Lee held the seat for three decades.

Green’s current district was scrambled by the Texas GOP’s redistricting, prompting him to jump into the race to represent a new district that contains many of his constituents.

Menefee’s victory is a huge boost to his public profile ahead of the primary. Early voting begins in two weeks.

TRUMP SEZ

Trump says India will buy oil from Venezuela, not Iran

Reuters 

Published February 1, 2026 

United States President Donald Trump on Saturday said India will buy Venezuelan oil, as opposed to purchasing oil from Iran.

“We’ve already made that deal, the concept of the deal,” Trump told reporters while on Air Force One, en route to Florida from Washington, DC.

Trump also said on Saturday that China was also welcome to make a deal with the US to buy Venezuelan oil.

Trump’s comment came a day after the US told Delhi it could soon resume purchases of Venezuelan oil to help replace imports of Russian oil, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.

India pledged to slash Russian crude oil purchases after Washington also hiked tariffs related to that activity, and India is on track to lower its Russian oil imports by several hundred thousand barrels per day in the coming months, according to the sources, who declined to be identified.

Trump imposed 25 per cent tariffs on countries buying Venezuelan oil, including India, in March 2025, and his administration ramped up a campaign against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, whom US forces captured on January 3.


Since then, Washington has begun directing the Caracas government and plans to control Venezuela’s oil industry indefinitely.

The US effort to supply Venezuelan crude to India comes as Washington seeks to reduce the oil revenue that is funding Russia in its war in Ukraine.

Last week, Indian Oil Minister Hardeep Singh Puri said India is diversifying its crude sources as its Russian oil imports fall.

Two of the Reuters sources said India is preparing to cut Russian oil imports to below one million barrels per day soon.

In January, they were around 1.2 million bpd, and are projected to decline to about 1m bpd in February and 800,000 bpd in March, one of those two sources said.

The second of the two sources said those imports are expected eventually to decline to about 500,000-600,000 bpd, helping the nation clinch a trade deal with the US.

US tariffs on Indian goods reached 50pc in August as Washington added a further 25pc tariff on purchases of Russian oil.

Challenges posed by Western sanctions eventually prompted Indian refiners to increase imports from other sources.

BALOCHISTAN IS A COUNTRY

Pakistan combing for perpetrators after deadly separatist attacks

Pakistan has been battling a Baloch separatist insurgency for decades. 

(AFP)

AFP
February 01, 2026

Around a dozen sites where the attacks took place — including the provincial capital Quetta — remained sealed off

The Baloch Liberation Army, the province’s most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks


QUETTA, Pakistan: Pakistan forces were hunting on Sunday for the separatists behind a string of coordinated attacks in restive Balochistan province, with the government vowing to retaliate after more than 120 people were killed.

Around a dozen sites where the attacks took place — including the provincial capital Quetta — remained sealed off, with troops combing the area a day after militants stormed banks, jails and military installations, killing at least 18 civilians and 15 security personnel, according to the military’s count.

At least 92 militants were also killed, the military added, while an official said that a deputy district commissioner had been abducted.

Mobile Internet service across the province has been jammed for more than 24 hours, while road traffic is disrupted and train services suspended.

After being rocked by explosions, typically bustling Quetta lay quiet on Sunday, with major roads and businesses deserted, and people staying indoors out of fear.

Shattered metal fragments and mangled vehicles litter some roads.

“Anyone who leaves home has no certainty of returning safe and sound. There is constant fear over whether they will come back unharmed,” Hamdullah, a 39-year-old shopkeeper who goes by one name, said in Quetta.

The Pakistan military said it was conducting “sanitization operations” in the areas that had been targeted in Saturday’s attacks.

“The instigators, perpetrators, facilitators and abettors of these heinous and cowardly act... will be brought to justice,” it said in a statement Saturday night.

The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), the province’s most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attacks in a statement sent to AFP.

The group said it had targeted military installations as well as police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings.

Saturday’s attacks came a day after the military said it killed 41 insurgents in two separate operations in the province.

Pakistan has been battling a Baloch separatist insurgency for decades, with frequent armed attacks on security forces, foreign nationals and non-local Pakistanis in the mineral-rich province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

Pakistan’s poorest province despite an abundance of untapped natural resources, Balochistan lags behind the rest of the country in almost every index, including education, employment and economic development.

Baloch separatists have intensified attacks on Pakistanis from other provinces working in the region in recent years, as well as foreign energy firms that they believe are exploiting its riches.

The separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board last year, sparking a two-day siege during which dozens of people were killed.

‘We will fight this war’: CM Bugti says 145 terrorists killed in 40 hours across Balochistan

Published February 1, 2026

DAWN/AFP



Security personnel stand at the blast site in Quetta on Feb 1, 2026, a day after a terrorist attack. — AFP

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti on Sunday expressed the firm resolve to eliminate terrorists after a spate of coordinated attacks across the province, adding that 145 militants were killed within a span of 40 hours.

The military’s media affairs wing said terrorists of Fitna-al-Hindustan carried out a spate of attacks across Balochistan on Saturday, responding to which the security forces killed 92 terrorists.

The state has designated Balochistan-based terrorist groups as Fitna-al-Hindustan to highlight India’s alleged role in terrorism and destabilisation across Pakistan.

Addressing a press conference in Quetta on Sunday, CM Bugti said 145 terrorists were killed in 40 hours, adding that their bodies were in the custody of the authorities.


“This is the highest number since Pakistan is facing this war on terror,” he highlighted.

“Our 17 law enforcement people, including police and FC and one Navy personnel, were martyred, and our civilian casualties are 31, including some injured,” CM Bugti said.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) had said on Saturday night that 15 personnel were martyred during the operations and 18 civilians, including women and children, were also killed during the attacks.

Stating that the state shared the grief of bereaved families, CM Bugti assured them that the welfare of the martyrs’ children was the government’s responsibility.

“We had intelligence reports that this kind of operation is being planned, and as a result of those, we had already started pre-operations a day before, in which around 40 terrorists were killed in Shaban and Panjgur,” he detailed.

The chief minister noted that the terrorists had planned to attack Quetta from Shaban, adding that the forces were “very vigilant”.

CM Bugti termed the Gwadar incident, where he said five women and three children were killed, as the “most painful”.

Noting that a narrative of independence had been created, he said, “When you could not even free a union council, a ward, why are you making Baloch fuel and on whose instructions? India’s.

“Whenever Pakistan begins to take off economically or on foreign fronts, you try to destabilise Pakistan by carrying out such attacks on India’s directives.”

The chief minister said the terrorists had planned to enter the Red Zone and occupy important assets, which were foiled.

However, he added, “Except for Nushki, where it took us some time to disengage them. Nushki is completely clear now.”

CM Bugti said tracing and combing operations were underway and vowed, “We will not let them go.”

The chief minister also assailed attempts to frame terrorism as a “political issue”.

“Is BLA a registered party with whom you have to hold a dialogue? […] They purely want to impose their ideology on us with the force of guns and push the Baloch into a futile war. […] You are linking this war with deprivation and rationalising this violence too.”

He asserted that “rationalising this violence in the name of ethno-nationalism was a direct support to BLA”.

Bugti then asked what some people wished for to be the outcome of such a dialogue. “As a result of dialogue, they want us to surrender? We will not. We will fight this war for a thousand years,” he affirmed.

“We are not ready to surrender even for a second. They can carry out a thousand such attacks. They can destabilise us, but they cannot take an inch from us. This Pakistan is not for breaking away. These people cannot do it. And neither can their masters.”

CM Bugti said “tools such as certain Sardars and social media” were being used to “disintegrate” the youth from the state. He expressed the resolve to further boost engagement with the population and the youth.

Responding to a question, he asserted that terrorists were only terrorists and that it upset him when they were called “Baloch terrorists”.

Noting that terrorists blend themselves within the civilian population, the chief minister asked, “Should we become brutal like them?

“We could kill 10 [terrorists] by throwing one mortar, but what about the 20 civilians with them? This is the only reason why we do not want to become brutal like them.”

CM Bugti also took exception to those arguing that the Balochistan “issue cannot be solved with force”. “When has force ever been used in Balochistan?” he asked rhetorically, adding that no military operation was conducted in any city.

“It is a purely intelligence-driven war,” the chief minister stressed, noting that only intelligence-based operations (IBOs) were conducted in the province.

He also accused India’s Research & Analysis Wing (RAW) of backing the terrorist activities, asserting that the authorities had “solid and circumstantial evidence”.

Responding to a question, CM Bugti expressed the state’s firm resolve to continue the war against terrorism.

“Why will we get tired? We are the state of Pakistan. We will not get tired,” he said, adding that military operations were not needed currently as IBOs were being carried out.

The chief minister noted that while “all kinds” of arms were employed in the recent attacks, those left behind after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan had “spread into the market and were provided to them by their masters”.

‘Mopping-up’ operation underway: defence minister

Separately, Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said peace has been established in Balochistan after yesterday’s attacks and security forces were now “engaged in a mopping-up operation”.

“At this moment in time, peace has been established, and the coordinated attack has been repulsed completely, and they (terrorists) have retreated,” Asif said while addressing the media in Sialkot.

The defence minister further said that attempts were made to target the FC headquarters in Nushki and Dalbadin, adding that all attacks were foiled.

“They attempted to carry out a suicide attack in Dalbadin,” he said, adding that “all targets have been neutralised”.

Echoing Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi’s statements, Asif blamed the incidents on neighbouring India, adding that the attacks aimed to “destabilise the country at a time when it is on the path to progress”.

“Our intelligence and the confessional statements by terrorists all prove linkages to India,” the defence minister said.

Pointing out that the BLA was now making use of female bombers, Asif said two of Saturday’s attacks involved women perpetrators.

“The minds of young women are being polluted,” he said, adding that the BLA was now targeting “labourers and poor people struggling to survive”.
US remains Pakistan’s ‘steadfast partner’ in efforts to ensure peace

Earlier in the day, US Charge de’ Affaires Natalie Baker strongly condemned the Balochistan terrorist attacks and affirmed that the United States remained a “steadfast partner” of Pakistan in efforts to ensure peace.

“The United States strongly condemns January 31 attacks and acts of terrorist violence against security personnel and civilians in Balochistan, claimed by the Balochistan Liberation Army, a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organisation,” Baker said on X.

On behalf of the US, she extended condolences to the victims of terrorism, their families and all those affected. “The Pakistani people deserve to live free from violence and fear,” she said.

Baker added: “The United States remains a steadfast partner of Pakistan in its efforts to ensure peace and stability. We stand in solidarity with Pakistan during this difficult time.”


In August 2025, the US also designated the BLA and its Majeed Brigade squad as foreign terrorist organisations (FTOs).

Besides the US, the British High Commission, Qatar and Saudi Arabia had also condemned the latest terrorist activities.

The interior minister held India responsible for the series of attacks, asserting that the authorities would go after every single one of those involved and the “masters behind them”.

In 2024, the BLA emerged as a key perpetrator of terrorist violence in Pakistan.

 Myanmar junta calls coup-protesting civil servants back to work

AFP
February 01, 2026


Tens of thousands of public workers left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience after the junta took power in 2021

Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military

YANGON: Myanmar’s junta called on Sunday for ex-civil servants who quit their jobs in protest over the coup five years ago to report back to work, pledging to remove absent state employees from “blacklists.”

After the military snatched power in a coup on February 1, 2021, tens of thousands of public workers, including doctors and government administrators, left their posts in a surge of civil disobedience.

Some found private employment, while others joined pro-democracy rebels defying the military in a civil war that has killed tens of thousands on all sides.
Last week, the junta completed a month-long election it has touted as a return to civilian rule.

But the dominant pro-military party won a walkover victory in a vote democracy watchdogs say was stacked with army allies to prolong its grip on power.

The junta’s National Defense and Security Council said civil servants who “left their workplaces without permission for various reasons” since February 2021 should “report and make contact with the offices of their former departments.”

“Following verification, employees found not to have committed any offense, as well as those who had committed offenses but have already served their sentences and whose names still appear on the blacklists, are being removed from the blacklists,” the council said in a statement published in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper.
Public employees who had been absent from work were placed on blacklists, “leading some to remain in hiding,” it added.

After the coup, in which the military ousted the elected government of democratic figurehead Aung San Suu Kyi, tens of thousands of striking public workers joined the “Civil Disobedience Movement” in protest.

The junta responded with a crackdown on demonstrators, relying on tips from informers and surprise raids to round up those on strike.

Today, more than 22,000 people are languishing in junta jails, according to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners monitoring group.

Suu Kyi remains in military detention and her massively popular party has been dissolved.
The junta’s phased elections ended last Sunday without voting in one in five of Myanmar’s townships, amid fighting that has left large swaths of the country outside military control.
Parties that won 90 percent of seats in the previous election in 2020 — won in a landslide by Suu Kyi’s party — did not appear on the ballot this time, the Asian Network for Free Elections said.