Iran caused serious damage to bilateral ties by airstrikes, Islamabad tells Tehran

ISLAMABAD (AA) – Pakistan’s foreign minister has told his Iranian counterpart that Tehran’s airstrikes inside his country caused serious damage to bilateral ties between the two countries.

Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani received a telephone call from Hossein Amir-Abdollahian after Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Tehran.

Islamabad also announced suspending all high-level visits to Iran and asked Tehran that the Iranian ambassador to Pakistan, who is currently visiting Iran, may not return for the time being.

“The Foreign Minister firmly underscored that the attack conducted by Iran inside Pakistani territory on 16 January 2024 was not only a serious breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty but was also an egregious violation of international law and the spirit of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Iran,” said the Foreign Ministry in a statement.

Jilani is currently in Kampala, Uganda, for a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Jilani condemned the attack and told his Iranian counterpart that Islamabad reserved the right to respond to this “provocative act.”

“Terrorism was a common threat to the region and required concerted and coordinated efforts to combat this menace,” Jilani said, adding that unilateral actions could seriously undermine regional peace and stability.

“No country in the region should tread this perilous path,” he concluded.

Earlier, Amir-Abdollahian, while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, claimed that the target of Iranian strikes in Pakistan was the Jaish al-Adl militant group.

In the first acknowledgment by a senior Iranian government official, the top diplomat claimed that “no civilians” were targeted in the missile and drone strikes carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in southwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan province.

On Tuesday night, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said that two children were killed and three girls were injured in an alleged Iranian airstrike in the Panjgur district of Balochistan.

Amir-Abdollahian said he assured Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar during their meeting on the sidelines of the Davos summit on Tuesday that Iran “respects Pakistan’s territorial sovereignty.”