International Desk

Pakistan Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani held a telephone conversation on Friday with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, expressing Islamabad's readiness to collaborate with Tehran on all issues against the backdrop of recent tensions between Pakistan and Iran.

On Tuesday, Iran launched attacks in Pakistan targeting what it described as bases for the militant group Jaish al-Adl in the border town of Panjgur in Balochistan, prompting a strong condemnation from Islamabad and downgrading of diplomatic ties, DAWN, a Pakistani newspaper reports quoting Iranian state media.

The Iranian strikes were part of a series of attacks conducted by Iran in recent days in Syria and Iraq in response to recent terrorist attacks on its territory. These actions have raised concerns about regional stability, particularly amid ongoing conflicts in the Middle East.

The next day, Pakistan struck “hideouts used by terrorist organisations namely Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF)” in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, in an intelligence-based operation codenamed ‘Marg Bar Sarmachar’.

Iran’s IRNA news agency had reported that nine people were killed in the attack targeting a village in the city of Saravan, with Iranian Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi saying all the dead “were foreign nationals”.

Iran had condemned the strikes and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires “to protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government,” according to a statement by foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani.

However, the Iranian foreign ministry later said in a press release that it was committed to good neighbourly relations with Pakistan while condemning what it said was an “unbalanced and unacceptable drone attack on non-Iranian villagers”.

Following Pakistan’s tit-for-tat response to Iran’s missile attack, caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, who was in Switzerland for the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), decided to cut short his visit.

Similarly, FM Jilani, who was in Uganda to attend a ministerial meeting of the non-aligned movement, also decided to return to the country.

According to a statement issued by the Foreign Office today, the foreign minister spoke to Abdollahian and expressed Pakistan’s readiness to work with Iran on “all issues based on the spirit of mutual trust and cooperation”.

“He underscored the need for closer cooperation on security issues,” the FO added.

The exchange between foreign ministers came as the National Security Committee (NSC) is set to convene an emergency meeting today.

PM Kakar will chair the high-level moot with all the military services chiefs, including Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Gen Syed

Asim Munir, in attendance, caretaker Information Minister Murtaza Solangi told Reuters by telephone.

It is aimed at a “broad national security review in the aftermath of the Iran-Pakistan incidents”, Solangi said.