Pakistan-Iran attack highlights: Iran launches air defence drill

Pakistan's foreign minister urged closer cooperation on security issues in a call with his Iranian counterpart on Friday and expressed his country's readiness to work with Iran on all issues, Reuters reported citin Pakistan's foreign ministry.

The leaders from the two neighbouring nations spoke a day after Pakistan fired retaliatory strikes on what it said were militant targets in Iran in response to Tehran's strikes this week targeting what it called militant bases in Pakistan.

Pakistan said on Friday it did not want to escalate a standoff with Iran, as Islamabad's top civilian and military leadership gathered to review the situation after both countries exchanged strikes on militant bases on each other's territory.

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar has begun a meeting of the high-powered National Security Committee, with all the military services chiefs in attendance, a source in the prime minister's Office told Reuters.

Amid the diplomatic standoff, Pakistan caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani had a telephonic conversation with his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan on Friday and said Islamabad has no interest or desire in escalation, Geo News reported.

Pakistani Minister Jilani shared Pakistan's perspective and the recent happenings. "Pakistan's Operation Marg Bar Sarmachar was aimed at terrorist camps inside Iran," he said.

It reported that the phone call came a day after the exchange of positive conversation between the top Pakistani and Iranian officials.

Iran said on Friday that it successfully carried out an air defence drill using drones designed to intercept hostile targets in an area stretching from its southwestern to southeastern coasts, amid heightened tensions in the region.

On Thursday Pakistan launched air strikes against what it said were separatist militants inside Iran in a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran said it struck the bases of another group within Pakistani territory.

The tit-for-tat strikes were the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm over wider instability in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7.

Iran launched missile strikes on three different countries this week - Iraq, Syria and Pakistan - while proxy militant groups it backs continue to target U.S. and Western interests and fight Israel, stoking fears of conflict that could engulf the Middle East and spread to other regions.

Iran's strikes on Iraq, Syria and Pakistan were all in response to attacks carried out on its soil or against Iranian targets.

Tehran said on Tuesday it fired missiles at Islamic State militants in Syria, in response to a bombing that killed scores of people at a commemoration for the famed commander Qassem Soleimani in central Iran on Jan. 3. Soleimani was the principal architect of Iran's network of proxy paramilitaries in the Arab world. A U.S. drone strike killed him in 2020.

After an alarming flare up, Pakistan and Iran have shown signs that they don't want the situation to escalate. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told Bloomberg on Friday that they don't want an escalation. "We also got similar kind of sentiments from their side. So we are taking it further," she said.

Islamabad and Tehran have sought to de-escalate tensions after Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes inside Iran on Thursday, threatening a full-scale conflict between the two neighbours, as per officials and diplomatic sources, as reported by The Express Tribune.

Pakistan after conducting the missile strikes sent a reconciliation message to Iran and told the neighbouring country that it had no interest in further escalating the tensions.

As per The Express Tribune, a Pakistan-based newspaper, with three key regional players working behind the scenes, Tehran indicated that it was ready to lower the tensions too.

Pakistan and Iran’s officials expressed resolve to ease tensions, a day after retaliatory military strikes by Islamabad escalated tensions with Tehran.

“We have repeatedly said Iran is a friend,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said by phone on Friday. “We do not want an escalation and we also got similar kind of sentiments from their side. So we are taking it further.”

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has condemned Pakistan's drone attack on non-Iranian villagers on the border of the two nations, calling it "unbalanced and unacceptable."

It said Iran adheres to the policy of "good neighbourliness and brotherhood" between two nations and does not allow enemies to strain the ties between Tehran and Islamabad.

"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns Pakistan's unbalanced and unacceptable drone attack on non-Iranian villagers on the border of the two countries," the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that he is "deeply concerned" about the exchange of military strikes between Iran and Pakistan. He called on both nations to exercise maximum restraint to avoid a further escalation of tensions.

According to a statement released by UN Chief Stephane Dujarric, Antonio Guterres said, "The Secretary-General is deeply concerned about the recent exchange of military strikes between Iran and Pakistan, which have reportedly caused casualties on both sides." "He urges both countries to exercise maximum restraint to avoid a further escalation of tensions," he added.

Antonio Guterres underlined that all security concerns between Iran and Pakistan must be addressed by "peaceful means" through dialogue and cooperation, in accordance with the principles of sovereignty, territorial integrity, and good neighbourly relations.

Pakistan's top civilian and military leaders will carry out a security review on Friday regarding the standoff with neighbouring Iran, the information minister said, following their strikes on each other with drones and missiles.

Pakistan's Thursday strikes on separatist militants inside Iran were a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran said it struck the bases of another group within Pakistani territory.

This week's airstrikes between Iran and Pakistan that killed at least 11 people mark a significant escalation in fraught relations between the neighbors.

Long-running, low-level insurgencies on either side of the border have frustrated both countries, and the apparent targets of the strikes — Iran's on Tuesday and Pakistan's response on Thursday — were insurgent groups whose goal is an independent Baluchistan for ethnic Baluch areas in Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The question is why Iran and Pakistan would choose to strike insurgents in each other's territories rather than their own, considering the risk of a wider conflagration.

Pakistan's caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-haq Kakar has summoned a meeting of top civilian and military leaders on Friday for a national security review following the standoff with Iran, Information Minister Murtaza Solangi told Reuters.

Pakistan launched strikes on separatist militants inside Iran on Thursday, in a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran said it struck the bases of another group within Pakistani territory.

An Iranian strike on Pakistan this week that drew a rapid military riposte and raised fears of greater regional turmoil was driven by Iran's efforts to reinforce its internal security rather than its ambitions for the Middle East, according to three Iranian officials, one Iranian insider and an analyst.

Both the heavily-armed neighbours, oftentimes at odds over instability on their frontier, appear to want to try to contain the strains resulting from the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years, two analysts and two of the officials said.

Iran sent shockwaves around the region on Tuesday with a missile strike against what it described as hardline Sunni Muslim militants in southwest Pakistan. Two days later, Pakistan in retaliation attacked what it said were separatist militants in Iran - the first air strike on Iranian soil since the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war.

Islamabad is on “extremely” high alert after Pakistan launched strikes on separatist militants inside Iran on Thursday, in a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran said it struck the bases of another group within Pakistani territory. Read more

The reason why Iran attacked Pakistan will be explained when the Iranian national security advisor visits India either this month or early February. But Iran was at the receiving end of attacks by this terrorist group Jaish-al-Adl. In 2013, this group had abducted the Iran Revolutionary Guards during cross border raids. Read more

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday expressed deep concerns over the exchange of military strikes between Iran and Pakistan and urged both countries to exercise maximum restraint to avoid a further escalation of tensions. The Iranian airstrike inside Pakistan's territory and a rapid military riposte by Islamabad have deepened worries about Middle East instability that have spread since the Israel-Hamas war erupted in October. Read more

Amid tensions between Iran and Pakistan, the US is concerned about the escalating tensions in the region and has urged restraint on all sides, US State Department of State Matthew Miller said on Thursday (local time).

While addressing a press briefing, Miller said there is no need for escalation in the matter. He said that the US has noted the Pakistani government's comments about the importance of "cooperative relations between Pakistan and its neighbours.