Davos:
Following Islamabad’s claims that the strike killed two youngsters, Iran’s top ambassador said on Wednesday that his country’s armed forces had hit a “Iranian terrorist group” in Pakistan the previous day.
During his remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian assured that “none of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.”
“The so-called Jaish al-Adl group, which is an Iranian terrorist group, was targeted,” according to him.
After what Tehran referred to as “anti-Iranian terrorist groups” attacked in Iraq and Syria late on Tuesday, the raid occurred late on Tuesday night.
Along with condemning the strike near their common border, Pakistan summoned its ambassador from Iran and prevented him from returning to Islamabad.
Caretaker Pakistani Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar met with Amir-Abdollahian at the Davos Forum a few hours prior to the strike.
According to Amir-Abdollahian, the Islamic republic of Iran launched an attack on “Pakistan’s soil” in retaliation for the recent deadly attacks carried out by the Jaish al-Adl group in the Islamic republic, with a focus on Rask in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan in the southeast.
A police officer was slain in an attack on January 10 at a city police station; this occurred about one month after a comparable incident in the vicinity claimed the lives of eleven police officers.
The Sunni Muslim extremist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) took credit for both assaults; it was founded in 2012 and is considered a “terrorist” outfit by Iran.
“The group has taken shelter in some parts of Pakistan’s Balochistan province,” said Amir-Abdollahian, noting that “we’ve talked with Pakistani officials several times on this matter” .
Iran will not “permit the country’s national security to be compromised or played with,” the foreign minister said, adding that Iran respects Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
