2024-01-29 09:02:02
ISLAMABAD (AP) — Iran’s foreign minister was in Pakistan on Monday to talk about easing tensions after at least 11 people were killed this month in deadly airstrikes from Tehran and Islamabad, a significant escalation in fragile relations. between the two neighbors.
Hossein Amirabdollahian landed before dawn at an airport near Islamabad and held “in-depth talks” with his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani, at the Foreign Ministry headquarters in Islamabad. The Iranian diplomat was also scheduled to meet with the interim prime minister, Anwaarul-Haq-Kakar.
Relations between the two countries came under serious threat on January 17 when Iran carried out airstrikes in Pakistan’s restive southwestern province of Baluchistan, targeting what Tehran described as hideouts of the anti-Iran militant group Jaish al-Adl, or Army. of Justice. Pakistan said two children were killed and three other people were injured.
Angered by the bombings, Pakistan withdrew its ambassadors from Tehran and carried out airstrikes on suspected militant hideouts in Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan province, killing at least nine people. Islamabad said it was attacking Baloch armed groups with separatist objectives.
Iran and Pakistan — a nuclear power — have long viewed each other with suspicion over cross-border militant attacks. Experts said this month’s crossfire attacks were at least partly due to domestic political pressure, although they have also raised the risk of violence spreading across the Middle East, a region already shaken by Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. .
During his visit, Amirabdollahian also hopes to brief his hosts on an incident on Saturday in which unknown gunmen shot and killed at least four Pakistani laborers and wounded three others in Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan province. Pakistan has condemned the killings, calling them “appalling and despicable.”
Relatives of the deceased Pakistanis demanded in a march on Sunday that the bodies of their loved ones be repatriated. Pakistan said it was being worked on with help from Iran, and that the three injured workers were being treated at an Iranian hospital.
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