By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: Iran’s foreign minister, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, will visit Pakistan next week, the foreign office said on Monday, in a sign of easing tensions between the two neighbors after after exchanging cross-border airstrikes against militants.
The visit, at the invitation of Pakistan’s foreign minister, Jalil Abbas Jilani, comes as both countries agreed to restore their ambassadors, who were recalled following a Iranian missile and drone attacks on what its claimed were the Islamic militant group, Jaish al-Adl, bases in Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan province.
Pakistan responded by launching an intelligence-based operation against hideouts in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, where several Baloch separatist groups operate, including the Balochistan Liberation Army and the Balochistan Liberation Front, which seek independence from Pakistan.
The tit-for-tat strikes raised fears of a wider conflict between the two countries, which share a 560-mile, largely lawless border and have long accused each other of harboring or supporting militants on the other side. Both deny the charges.
But the situation quickly de-escalated after a phone call between Jilani and Abdollahian on Friday, in which they agreed to work together on “all issues” and expressed their willingness to resume diplomatic ties.
“Following the telephone conversation between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, it has been mutually agreed that ambassadors of both countries may return to their respective posts by January 26, 2024,” the foreign office said in a statement.
“At the invitation of Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, will undertake a visit to Pakistan on 29 January 2024.”
The escalation prompted a high-level meeting of Pakistan’s National Security Committee, the country’s top authority on security and foreign policy, on Friday. The meeting, chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar, ratified the move towards reducing tensions with Iran and underscored a commitment to addressing mutual security concerns.
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