Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a Washington-based think tank, has launched the “Balochistan Studies Project,” where known anti-Pakistan and terrorist sympathizer Mir Yar Baloch has been appointed as special advisor to this study project. Even a cursory look at the coverage of complex issues like Balochistan on its website, one can understand that MEMRI is not an academic entity by any standard, rather it’s an interest group cloaked as a think tank keen in preparing preposterous reports and conspiracy theories against the regional states to serve the long-term Israeli interests.
MEMRI is not a think tank but an interest group pushing Israeli agendas under academic guise.
The analysis and commentary on Balochistan available on MEMRI’s digital platforms is based on one-sided, exaggerated, and distorted narratives. MEMRI was formed by former Israeli Intelligence Officer, Yigal Carmon, instead of any well-reputed policy research experts with a strong academic background. Strangely, it can secure funding from the US government among other private entities, including foreign governments, interest groups, and agencies.
More interestingly, MEMRI presents itself as a “bridging the language gap” entity between the Arab and Muslim world, Russia, China, and the West, which means it basically translates original content in English for better understanding for its clients. But on its donation page, it clearly states that “bridging the language gap” somehow also includes “provision of vital research, primary source translations, and “original analysis” to the governments of the U.S. and its allies, and to their counterterrorism officials, law enforcement agencies, militaries, and other authorities.” So basically, it is a front desk of US allies like Israel and India to promote the interests of anyone who can fund its operations. This is where MEMRI’s links to Balochistan, Pakistan, Israel, India, and the Strategic reset start to become clear.
Since the Indo-Pakistan clash in early last month, Balochistan has been among the news in local newsroom agendas in India and Pakistan, but it has suddenly become part of a greater regional debate in Washington yet again since the last three days, coincidence with the commencement of the Iran-Israel conflict. Narrative of Free Balochistan is being resurrected once again as Iran is indulging in a what looks like a prolonged conflict with Israel.
Centrifugal forces in the Pakistani side of Balochistan have long been active with both kinetic and non-kinetic tactics. Afghanistan is under Taliban control, who were once declared a threat to global peace if they took control of the government. Among non-kinetic tactics are psy-ops based on coordinated disinformation campaigns, blatant lies, and foreign-funded “peace” walks and protests aligned with kinetic actions of BLA and other groups that carry out regular terrorist acts targeting Pakistani security forces and ethnic non-Baloch individuals, including laborers, farmers, and traders.
Free Balochistan is a recycled geopolitical ploy against Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Any state measure against these activities is projected as “oppression” against the common Baloch. In this way, ethnic and linguistic fault lines are kept active. Now, Iran is also being painted as the oppressor of the Baloch population of Sistan-Balochistan (Iranian side of Balochistan), while the Afghan Taliban were always part of some evil. Solution proposed by MEMRI is “Free Balochistan”, carved out of all three states.
Israeli involvement in Balochistan goes back as far as 2006 during the early years of the War on Terror, when on May 2nd, 2006, a Baloch government in exile was formed in Jerusalem and Mir Suleman Dawood Khan was declared its head. This chapter of the Baloch government in exile fizzled out, but in 2022, another iteration of this exercise was announced by Prof. Naela Quadri Baloch, who announced the establishment of a new Baloch government in exile in some European country, and she also paid tribute to the terrorists of BLA, calling them martyrs.
This development must suffice to establish that Indo-Israel cooperation on Balochistan goes back decades and is much deeper than mere narrative building. Facilitating people like Naela Quadri Baloch at the UN is also part of this sinister Indo-Israel nexus. In 2023, she began her EU tour, and the only noticeable media outlet giving her limelight was no other than ANI[1], the same news outlet that led a 15-year-long anti-Pakistan clandestine media campaign globally.
Now, if we analyze this latest Free Balochistan narrative based on similar lies and propaganda against both Pakistan and Iran, one can see how the same forces have once again unleashed a well-planned disinformation war not only against Pakistan’s unity and sovereignty but against regional stability and peace as well. Free Balochistan in MEMRI’s Balochistan Studies Project comprises parts of Balochistan spread across Pakistan, Iran, and Afghanistan.
So, this study is a fresh attempt to resurrect the hibernating sidewinder of Redrawing Middle East as once presented by Peter Raphale around 2005-06. This was an imperial scheme of dividing multiple Middle Eastern nations on ethnic and linguistic bases, but it couldn’t work due to various reasons. Among these were Pakistan’s growing strategic capabilities. This is another axis of the Indo-Israel nexus against Pakistan’s national security is Pakistan’s strategic capabilities, which guarantee strategic stability across South Asia and is one major hurdle in fulfilling the common Indo-Israel Free Balochistan agenda.
Hybrid threats, not military invasions, are the primary tools of Indo-Israel campaigns today.
On 31 March 2011, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu, while giving an interview to Israeli journalist Dana Weiss, declared his intentions clear regarding Pakistan’s nuclear capability when he was asked what he considered the biggest challenge for future generations that must be addressed now. He said, “The greatest mission that we have is to prevent a militant Islamic regime from meeting up with nuclear weapons or from nuclear weapons meeting up with a militant Islamic regime.
The first is called Iran, the second is called Pakistan.”[2] While Israel has aided India with advanced military technologies against Pakistan including Airborne Early Warning & Control system, Air Defense Systems, and advanced munition to attack Pakistan’s sensitive installations entities like Mir Yar Baloch invites Indian PM through a long letter on his social media platform, X to demand “Balochistan’s embassy in Delhi”.[3] He wrote this letter on 28th May 2025, the day when every Pakistani was celebrating Youm e Takbir with renewed national fervor after fresh clashes with India from 6 to 10th May 2025 where Pakistan’s strategic capability played a fundamental role in ensuring that this clash doesn’t go beyond a certain threshold hence ensuring strategic stability.
He condemned Pakistan’s nuclear tests in 1998 in his letter and labelled blatant lies to paint an extremely dreadful picture of post-nuclear test fallout in Balochistan. When self-proclaimed journalists like Mir Yar Baloch invite Indian PM to fight and “defeat common enemy” (i.e. Pakistan) on this day, it left very little to anyone’s imagination that he is not only mouthpiece for Israeli’s anti-Pakistan narrative but he has become an agent of chaos as well after becoming partner of a shadowy think tank; one who openly has aligned with the forces that wish to destabilize not only Pakistan but the entire region. His letter to the Indian PM through social media, his MEMRI’s appointment, and the commonality of views about Pakistan’s strategic capability complete the full circle connecting Israel, India, and Balochistan being parts of a complex geopolitical chessboard.
His words do not represent the socio-economic challenges of common Baloch, but they are part of a deliberate attempt to legitimize separatism under the cover of research. This is not the first attempt and certainly not the last. As mentioned in this article, Pakistan has witnessed many such champions of the Baloch people who only served Indian and Israeli interests by becoming a mouthpiece of various academic and research groups.
Unity and regional cooperation are Pakistan’s best defense against this orchestrated narrative war.
This is among the hybrid threats the state of Pakistan has been fighting against since last more than 2 decades now. All these threats are linked to Pakistan’s strategic capabilities in one way or another. Israel and India are two nations that openly consider Pakistan a threat and continue to plot against this capability through such a hybrid threat. Unity within the country and close coordination with the brotherly nations of Afghanistan and Iran are the way forward for Pakistan to thwart such hybrid threats.
References:
[1] See Related News Item here https://www.aninews.in/news/world/europe/baloch-community-in-germany-welcomes-prime-minister-of-government-of-balochistan-in-exile20230620082916/
[2] Interview of Israeli PM is accessible at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5t6A9wSMWo
[3] Mir Yar Baloch Letter to Indian PM Modi https://x.com/miryar_baloch/status/1927590300156875238
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not represent the views, beliefs, or policies of the Stratheia.
