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Pakistan is in a precarious position as the U.S. and Israel's war with Iran spreads. It's trying to stay out of the conflict while also maintaining good relations with the United States and Saudi Arabia, which has been targeted by Iranian drones and missiles. But at home, that balancing act has caused some controversy. Betsy Joles has more from Islamabad.
BETSY JOLES, BYLINE: Pakistan directly borders Iran and its southwest, but the bigger risk of war's spillover could come from another direction via Saudi Arabia. That's because of a mutual defense pact that Islamabad signed with Riyadh last September. The pact says that any aggression towards one will be treated as aggression towards the other. In other words...
BAQIR SAJJAD: Pakistan would have to deploy its troops or air force or whatever is required - air defenses - for Saudi defense.
JOLES: Baqir Sajjad is a security columnist and former Pakistan fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington, D.C. He says Pakistan's leadership recognizes that the agreement is binding.
SAJJAD: That is a sense at the official level that they have to commit to the Saudi war if it gets bad.
JOLES: Pakistan is clear that it does not wish to be dragged into the conflict that also involves the U.S., with which it wants to maintain good relations. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif expressed concerns over the assassination of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he stopped short of saying the U.S. was responsible.
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UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting in non-English language).
JOLES: The state's position is frustrating for some Pakistanis - among them, members of the country's large Shia community, who took to the streets last weekend to protest against Khamenei's killing.
Nida Afzal, a political activist and member of the Shia community from Lahore, says she sees Iran as not just a spiritual hub, but as...
NIDA AFZAL: One of the very few countries who do not believe in American hegemony and have been operating for so many years without it and despite it, I'll say.
JOLES: Versions of this sentiment extend to other communities in Pakistan as well. Supporters of Jamaat-e-Islami, a conservative religious party, gathered in Islamabad today to protest U.S. and Israeli aggression against Iran. Here, the group's leader in Islamabad, Nasrullah Randhawa, demands that Pakistan withdraw from the Trump-led Board of Peace, which was established to oversee Gaza's reconstruction.
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NASRULLAH RANDHAWA: (Non-English language spoken).
JOLES: Asfandyar Mir, senior fellow for South Asia at the Stimson Center, says there's sympathy for Iran and its people at multiple levels in Pakistan, but when it comes to the governments...
ASFANDYAR MIR: There's no love lost between Pakistan and Iran.
JOLES: That's also Pakistan's situation with another neighbor, Afghanistan. The two have been fighting for more than a week now, and there's no sign that conflict is ending anytime soon.
For NPR News, I'm Betsy Joles in Islamabad.
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