Iran and Pakistan have called for stepped-up bilateral security cooperation while stressing respect for each other’s national sovereignty.
The conciliatory remarks follow a rare missile exchange earlier this month in which the two countries struck targets inside each other’s territory.
“Both sides respect one another’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian said on Jan. 29.
He made the comments at a joint news conference with his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani, in Pakistan’s capital.
“We are both here in Islamabad to say it together: Iran and Pakistan will not allow terrorists to strike blows against our countries’ security,” Mr. Abdollahian said.
In a sign of the two countries’ “brotherly” ties, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi will soon visit Pakistan, according to Tehran’s top diplomat.
Mr. Jilani, for his part, said Pakistan and Iran had agreed to fight terrorism “in their respective territories” with a view to allaying “each other’s concerns.”
The two Muslim neighbors have had rocky ties in the past but have enjoyed relatively friendly relations in recent years—despite increasingly fraught regional circumstances.
Mr. Jilani also stressed the effectiveness of the communication channels that exist between the two countries.
“These channels ... allowed us to resolve whatever misunderstandings were created between our two countries fairly quickly,” he said.
On Jan. 16, the Iranian military struck targets in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan region with dozens of missiles and drones.
Tehran said the strikes were aimed at the Jaysh al-Adl terrorist group, a Pakistan-based Baloch faction opposed to Iran.
Jaysh al-Adl has carried out several attacks in the past on Iranian military and civilian targets.
Pakistan was quick to condemn the strikes, which reportedly left two children dead, as a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty.
Rare Missile Exchange
On Jan. 18, Pakistan launched its own missile barrage against alleged militant sites in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan Province.The province shares a lengthy border with Pakistan’s underdeveloped but mineral-rich Balochistan region.
According to Islamabad, the retaliatory strikes were aimed at the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), an Iran-based militant faction that purportedly seeks Balochistan’s independence from Pakistan.
For the past two decades, the BLF has waged a low-intensity armed insurgency against the Pakistani state.
Pakistan later claimed that the strikes had killed several Baloch “terrorists.” Tehran, for its part, said the barrage had left nine foreign nationals dead near the border.
The rare missile exchange briefly fueled concerns about the potential for wider conflict.
“Given the tensions in the region, there is the risk for an increase in conflict,” a U.S. State Department spokesman warned at the time.
Iran Blames ‘Third Countries’
Both countries, however, moved swiftly to contain the crisis.On Jan. 19, Tehran reiterated its respect for Pakistan’s sovereignty, saying that its recent strikes on Balochistan had served to preempt an imminent terrorist threat.
On the same day, Mr. Jilani stressed Pakistan’s readiness to “work with Iran on all issues based on a spirit of mutual trust and cooperation.”
Soon afterward, both countries announced that they had agreed to return their respective ambassadors to their posts.
But the budding rapprochement was again threatened on Jan. 27, when unidentified gunmen killed nine Pakistani laborers in Sistan and Baluchestan’s Saravan district.
In a social media post, Pakistan’s envoy to Tehran decried the “horrifying” murders, urging the Iranian authorities to “extend full cooperation in the matter.”
According to Iranian media, police are still searching for three people suspected of carrying out the attack, for which no group has claimed responsibility.
Iran’s foreign ministry also condemned the shooting, which occurred two days before Mr. Abdollahian’s planned visit to Islamabad.
“Iran and Pakistan won’t allow their enemies to damage their brotherly ties,” a ministry spokesman said in a statement.
Speaking in Islamabad, Mr. Abdollahian claimed that some militant groups operating near the Iran–Pakistan border were being directed by “third countries that don’t have our best interests at heart.”
He added that Tehran and Islamabad had agreed to take action against “terrorists” allegedly operating in their respective territories.
Mr. Abdollahian refrained from naming the alleged “third countries” in question. However, Iranian officials often accuse Israel and the United States of covertly supporting terrorist groups in the region.
The United States and Israel deny Iran’s claims.
