Earlier this month, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was buried in his hometown of Mashhad after a four-day ceremony.
Many international delegations were present, but each country will have chosen its representatives with the utmost care. Sending senior officials would go beyond mere diplomatic courtesy and perhaps signal an alliance.
Only two countries sent their prime ministers to the funeral: Iraq and Pakistan, both of which share a border with Iran. This decision points to an emerging “axis of sympathy” between the countries, a new regional theater of Southwest Asia that breaks the simple binaries of the Middle East and South Asia.
India – South Asia’s biggest power and Pakistan’s rival – sent a delegation that did not include Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi had also failed to condemn the killing of Khamenei in a joint US-Israeli airstrike on February 28.
Indian network WIONews – owned by ZEE Media, India’s largest registered news network – gave the impression that Iran-India relations were in a good place. On July 6, 2026, the day of the funeral, a headline read ‘Iranians will never forget’: Iran appreciates India’s participation in Khamenei’s funeral.
Headlines like this fail to acknowledge a deeper geopolitical shift. One of the main consequences of the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran is that it has created a Pakistan-Iran alliance.
It wasn’t always like that. In the 1990s, Pakistan and Iran fought each other in Afghanistan. By 2024, Tehran and Islamabad exchanged fire on separatists in the Baloch-inhabited areas that straddle their shared border.
India and Iran were also closer in the past. In 2003, Iran agreed to allow India to develop a deep-water port Chabaharproviding a transport corridor to Central Asia and Russia that bypassed Pakistan.
Khamenei’s funeral marked a major reconfiguration of all these alliances.
Necropolitics, emotion and keeping Trump happy
Cameroonian researcher Achilles Mbembe defines necropolitics as “the subjection of life under the power of death.” Khamenei’s four-day funeral was not just the burial of a human body – it was a necropolitical ceremony, choreographed by the Islamic Republic to gauge which nations were willing to send a “mourning delegation”.
Book by Dominique Moisi 2009, Geopolitics of emotionscan help us understand the deep significance of these gestures, especially with the second Trump administration in full swing.
The nations and organizations of the world – from NATO to FIFA – must now be held accountable and prevent the wrath of the American president. This expands Moses’ “geopolitics of emotion” into a “geopolitics of appeasement”—diplomatic structures that serve primarily to appease Trump, massage his ego, and avoid his wrath.
In practical terms, this means that any nation that sends a head of state to Khamenei’s funeral must reckon with Trump’s reaction. Only two states felt brave enough to send their prime ministers to the funeral – Pakistan’s Shahbaz Sharif and Iraq’s Ali Falih Kadhim al-Zaidi were both present.
It is worth noting that India’s delegation was not an insult. The presence of the Indian Shia general They Hasnain in particular he showed respect for Iran’s Shiite majority. But in creating alliances, geopolitical weight ultimately trumps religious sectarianism.
Pakistan, the diplomatic intermediary
Pakistan has been increasingly powerful in its relations with Iran over the past year.
First, Pakistani mediation it was what gave the Islamic Republic diplomatic distance during the 2026 conflict that erupted over 40 days in the Gulf. Pakistani officials brought Iran and the US to the negotiating table in Islamabad.
Second, Pakistan insisted that the ceasefire also apply to Israeli operations in Lebanon. She achieved this, demonstrating that her influence can be felt on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Even with Violation of the US-Iran ceasefire from mid-July, Pakistan’s role was vital and was in stark contrast to India, which, despite military ties with Israelnor did he ask for a truce.
The India-Israel alliance runs deep. Apart from the strategic partnership trumpeted over Modi’s Visit in February 2026 in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, many Indian Hindu nationalists are permanent and fervent admirers of the nation-state model.
Geography matters
India argues that it is following “multiple alignment”. In contrast to its Cold War policy of “non-alignment”, India today seeks to maintain cordial relations with every nation – even rivals like Iran and the US.
However, there is a big difference in the long-term viability of each alliance within the new regional theater of Southwest Asia. India does not border the United Arab Emirates and Israel, nor the USA. Iran and Pakistan, however, share a long border.
The rapprochement that emerged from the 2026 war means that both nations can actively benefit from the alliance. This will allow them to cooperate, for example, in managing tensions with the Taliban in Afghanistan and Balochi separatists.
The emerging “axis of sympathy” is more symbolic than Iran’s most difficult Axis of Resistance. The Islamic Republic sees the sympathy of Iraq and Pakistan as part of the delicate balancing act of its neighbors, which will have to keep them on Tehran’s side.
The benefits are already clear. Pakistan allowed Iraq and Iran to achieve the common goal of preventing a protracted conflict in the Persian Gulf—a goal shared by the Gulf Cooperation Council as well.
A prolonged war would benefit no one in the Middle East or South Asia, but as countries from all these regions worked towards a ceasefire, it was Pakistan that brought the first diplomatic breakthrough.
Pakistan and Iraq’s decision to send their top government officials to Khamenei’s funeral does not mean the two countries are choosing sides. But for Pakistan in particular, secure mediation and strategic ties with Tehran and other powers are transforming alliances, signaling a major shift in power dynamics in Southwest Asia and beyond.
Ibrahim Al-Marashi is an assistant professor, IE University; California State University San Marcos
This article was reprinted from Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read on original article.
