The latest player to unmask itself is the United States. Even as tensions brew between Pakistan and the US over a resolution introduced in the US House of Representatives seeking sovereignty for the volatile province, officials reveal that the US has been pushing Islamabad for permission to establish bases in Balochistan for intelligence operations against bordering Iran.

The international front

Running parallel to the Balochistan saga is the recent rising concern in the West over purported Iranian ambitions to build nuclear arsenal. Reports in the recent past suggest American and Israeli authorities are starting to run out of patience, and the threat of Israeli military action against defiant Iran is a growing one.

Experts say the statement was a veiled reference to American ambitions to put an end to Iran’s nuclear drive.

In December last year, President Asif Ali Zardari delivered a speech at a gathering of Pakistan Peoples Party workers, saying he would never allow his country to become part of any other war theatre in the region.

“We are the well wishers of all and don’t want to make any more enemies,” the president said in remarks that officials interpreted as a snub to American pressure seeking permission for anti-Iran intelligence operations.