UN, US call for calm after Iran, Pakistan cross-border strikes
TEHRAN—The United Nations and the United States appealed for restraint on Thursday after Iran and Pakistan traded deadly air strikes on militant targets on each other’s territory.
The rare military action across the porous border between the heavily armed neighbors has further stoked tensions already enflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.
Pakistan’s strikes against militant targets in Iran early on Thursday came two days after similar Iranian strikes on its territory, and prompted Tehran to summon Islamabad’s envoy.
At least nine people were killed in the strikes in restive Sistan-Baluchistan province, most of them women or children, Iran’s official IRNA news agency reported.
They came after Iran carried out raids on what it described as “terrorist” targets in Pakistan on Tuesday, killing at least two children.
While Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan often accuse each other of allowing militants to operate from the other’s territory, cross-border operations by government forces have been rare.
‘Maximum restraint’
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,” his spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.
White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the United States was monitoring the situation “very, very closely” and was in touch with Pakistani officials.
“These are two well-armed nations and again we don’t want to see an escalation,” Kirby told reporters.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry described Thursday’s raids as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts” in Sistan-Baluchistan.
The strikes took place at around 4:30 a.m., with three drones destroying four houses in a village near the city of Saravan, IRNA said, citing Alireza Marhamati, deputy governor of the province.
Iranian media carried images showing severely damaged homes, with one video showing people gathered around a crater.All of those killed were Pakistanis, and investigations were under way to determine why they were in the Iranian village, Marhamati said.
The raids targeted Baluch separatists, according to the Pakistani army. The military has been waging a decadeslong fight against separatist groups in its sparsely populated border region.
‘Unacceptable’
Iran condemned the action, and summoned Pakistan’s charge d’affaires “to protest and request an explanation from the Pakistani government,” foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanani said.The ministry described Pakistan’s strikes as “unbalanced and unacceptable,” and said Iran expects Pakistan “to adhere to its obligations in preventing the establishment of bases and armed terrorist groups in Pakistan.”
Jihadist group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice) has carried out repeated deadly attacks on Iranian security forces in recent months, and Tehran has long alleged that it operates out of rear bases across the border.
Pakistan delivered a strong rebuke to Iran over its strikes, recalling its ambassador from Tehran and blocking Iran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.
China offered to mediate between the neighbors, both close economic partners of Beijing.
The European Union expressed concern about the “spiral of violence in the Middle East and beyond.”
Rising Iran-Pakistan tensions add to multiple crises in the region, with Israel waging a war against Hamas in Gaza and Houthi rebels in Yemen attacking commercial vessels in the Red Sea. —AFP
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