Earlier this month, the Supreme Leader of Iran, 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 their representatives with the utmost care. Sending high-ranking officials would go beyond mere diplomatic courtesy, and possibly signal an alliance.

Only two states sent their prime ministers to the funeral: Iraq and Pakistan, both of whom share a border with Iran. This decision indicates an emerging “Axis of Sympathy” between the countries, a new South-West Asian regional theatre 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 Khamenei’s assassination 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 6 July 2026, the day of the funeral, one headline stated “‘Iranians will never forget’: Iran appreciates India’s participation in Khamenei funeral”.

Headlines like this fail to acknowledge a more profound geopolitical shift. One of the main consequences of the ongoing US-Israeli war with Iran is that is has forged a Pakistan-Iran alliance.

This was not always the case. In the 1990s, Pakistan and Iran fought one another in Afghanistan. As recently as 2024, Tehran and Islamabad exchanged fire over separatists in the Baloch-inhabited areas that straddle their shared........

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