Washington:
The United Nations and the United States appealed for restraint on Thursday after Iran and
Following a bloody exchange of airstrikes between Iran and Pakistan targeting militants on each other’s territory, the US and the UN issued a call for caution on Thursday.
Tensions, already high due to the Israel-Hamas conflict, have been further heightened by the unusual military activity across the porous border between the heavily armed neighbors.
Two days after Iran launched strikes on Pakistani soil, Pakistan launched strikes against militant targets in Iran early on Thursday, prompting Tehran to call Islamabad’s envoy.
The strikes in the volatile province of Sistan-Baluchistan claimed the lives of nine individuals, the majority of them were women and children, according to Iran’s official news agency, IRNA.
This followed Tuesday’s raids in Pakistan that Iran said were targeting “terrorist” groups, killing two youngsters.
Government troops have seldom conducted operations over the border, despite frequent accusations of permitting extremists to operate from each other’s territory by nuclear-armed Pakistan and Iran, respectively.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called on the two governments to “exercise maximum restraint”.
“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,” said his press secretary Stephane Dujarric.
John Kirby, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, stated that the US was keeping in touch with Pakistani officials and was keeping a “very, very close eye” on the situation.
Kirby warned that an escalation was undesirable, saying, “These are two well-armed nations.”
US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller echoed his comments.
No matter what happens, we don’t think this should get worse. The United States will always count Pakistan as one of its most important non-NATO allies, but we ask that they exercise prudence here.
The fact that Islamabad had informed Washington before hitting Iran was something Kirby claimed he was “not aware” of. When asked whether the US will back Pakistan, he remained silent.
A “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in Sistan-Baluchistan were reported Thursday by Pakistan’s foreign minister. They took place on Thursday.
Three drones destroyed four buildings in a village near Saravan city at around 4:30 am (0100 GMT), according to IRNA, citing Alireza Marhamati, the deputy governor of the region.
Photos and videos from Iranian media outlets showed devastated houses and, in one clip, people congregating around a crater.
According to Marhamati, all of the victims were Pakistanis, and the motive for their presence in the Iranian village is currently being investigated.
The Pakistani army said that the Baluch separatists were the intended targets of the raids. This border territory is very thinly populated, yet the military has been fighting separatist organizations there for decades.
‘Spiral of violence’
Speaking on behalf of the Iranian foreign ministry, Nasser Kanani claimed that Iran had summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires “to protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government” in response to the move, which Tehran had denounced.
The ministry criticized Pakistan’s strikes, calling them “unbalanced and unacceptable.” It further stated that Iran wants Pakistan to fulfill its responsibility in preventing the creation of bases and armed terrorist groups in Pakistan.
Tehran has long claimed that the jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) operates out of rear locations across the border, and in recent months, the group has carried out multiple deadly attacks against Iranian security personnel.
Recalling its ambassador from Tehran and preventing Iran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad, Pakistan delivered a stern rebuke to Iran for the strikes.
Since both countries are significant economic partners of China’s, Beijing volunteered to act as a mediator between them.
Worries over a “spiral of violence in the Middle East and beyond” were voiced by the European Union.
Restive province
While Israel fights Hamas in Gaza and Huthi rebels in Yemen target commercial ships in the Red Sea, rising tensions between Iran and Pakistan exacerbate other issues in the area.
In the meanwhile, Afghanistan expressed its concern about the recent violence between its neighbors and called for calm, saying that it was “alarming.” Afghanistan shares borders with Pakistan and Iran and is home to a small Baluch population.
Prime Minister Anwar-ul-Haq Kakar will shorten his travel to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, “in view of the ongoing developments,” according to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, which tweeted on Thursday.
Kakar had met with Iran’s foreign minister outside the event and posed for photos just hours before the strike.
Anarchy has persisted in the predominantly Sunni Muslim region of Sistan-Baluchistan, Iran, for some time now, thanks to jihadists, Baluchi rebels, and transnational drug gangs.
