Iranian Foreign Minister to visit Pakistan following tensions over missile strikes

Iran’s FM to visit Pakistan following tensions over missile strikes

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian plans to make an official visit to Pakistan next week.

The Iranian foreign minister and his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani, issued a joint statement on Monday following an earlier phone conversation.

At the invitation of the Pakistani foreign minister, Amir-Abdollahian “will travel to Pakistan on January 29, 2024,” the statement said.

It added that the top Iranian and Pakistani diplomats also agreed that ambassadors of both countries would return to their posts by January 26.

The two neighboring countries witnessed an escalation of cross-border tensions over Iran’s counter-terrorism operations.

On January 16, Iran launched simultaneous drone and missile attacks on two bases of Jaish ul-Adl, a terror outfit that was formed in 2012 and has conducted several attacks on Iranian soil in recent years.

The group claimed responsibility for an attack in December 2023 on a police station in the southeastern city of Rask that martyred at least 11 Iranian police officers. On January 10, another attack by the group on a police station in the city martyred one officer.

Pakistan carried out strikes on Thursday against what it called bases of the separatist Baloch Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army in regions close to Iran’s border.

Tehran condemned the attack as unacceptable and unbalanced.