Anger among Pakistan’s Shi’ites underlines its Iran-US tightrope walk
The Straits Times
Islamabad is looking to balance the anger among its Shi’ite Muslims and its alliance with Washington. Read more at straitstimes.com.
LAHORE - Pakistan’s efforts to preserve close ties with President Donald Trump are being put to the test after protesters stormed the US consulate in Karachi last week and poured onto streets elsewhere over the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in US and Israeli strikes.
Islamabad is looking to balance the anger among its minority Shi’ite Muslim community, the second-largest in the world after Iran, and its alliance with Washington, underlined by its membership of Mr Trump’s Board of Peace in 2026, where Israel also has a seat at the table.
Complicating the challenge is Pakistan’s worst fighting in years with Afghanistan, the other nation on its western border along with Iran.
Pakistan’s relationship with the US has strengthened since Mr Trump returned to the White House in 2025, ending more than a decade on Washington’s blacklist and providing a useful counterbalance to its troubled ties with India.
The mercurial Trump has a close relationship with Field Marshal Asim Munir, the most powerful man in Pakistan.
Pakistan also maintains deep military, economic and political ties with Saudi Arabia and recently signed a strategic defence pact that states aggression against either state should be treated as an attack on both.
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