Pak, Iran agree to 'de-escalate' after tit-for-tat attacks

NT Bureau, Agencies

Islamabad: Pakistan and Iran on Friday agreed to "de-escalate the situation" and strengthen coordination on counter-terrorism as the two sides began to pick threads of tattered ties following their tit-for-tat military strikes in each other's territory.

Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani spoke with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian on the telephone and expressed his country's desire to “work with Iran based on the spirit of mutual trust and cooperation,” Pakistan's Foreign Office said in a statement.

"The Foreign Minister stressed that respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty must underpin this cooperation," it said.

In a separate statement earlier, the FO said Foreign Minister Jilani expressed Pakistan's readiness to work with Iran on "all issues and underscored the need for closer cooperation on security issues".

The positive development came after Pakistan conducted "precision military strikes" against what it called "terrorist hideouts" in Iran's Siestan-Balochistan province that killed 9 people on Thursday.

The attack was seen as retaliation to Iranian missile and drone attacks on Tuesday, which targeted two bases of the Sunni Baloch militant group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan's unruly Balochistan province.

According to IRNA, Iran's official news agency, Amir Abdollahian urged Pakistan to assist in “foiling plots and destroying terrorist hideouts in its territories.”

Pointing to Iran's recent attack on a hideout of the so-called Jaish al-Adl terrorist group inside Pakistani soil, he argued that intelligence documents showed that over 50 terrorists were getting ready to conduct terrorist attacks on Iran.

He further said that under the current circumstances in Palestine, where the Israeli regime is committing crimes against the oppressed nation, influential countries of the Islamic world such as Iran and Pakistan are expected to maintain unity.

In the phone conversation, the Pakistani top diplomat officially invited his Iranian counterpart to visit Islamabad, the IRNA said.