Iran, Pakistan envoys to resume duties after tensions over deadly strikes

Israel’s war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip has the Mideast simmering, raising the temperature of tensions across the region and increasing the risk that seemingly localised conflicts could spin out of control. File
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Iran and Pakistan announced on January 22 that their Ambassadors would resume their duties after the two countries agreed to de-escalate tensions following an exchange of deadly strikes last week.

“It has been mutually agreed that the Ambassadors of both countries may return to their respective posts by January 26,” said a joint statement by the Foreign Ministries in Tehran and Islamabad.

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Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is also due to visit Pakistan on January 29 following an invitation from his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani, the statement said.

The decisions were announced following a phone call between Mr. Jilani and Mr. Amir-Abdollahian.

Pakistan launched on Thursday airstrikes on “militant targets” in Iran, two days after similar Iranian strikes on its territory.

Tehran said its strikes in Pakistan targeted Jaish al-Adl, a jihadist group which has carried out a spate of deadly attacks in Iran in recent months.

Formed in 2012, the group is blacklisted by Iran as a “terrorist” organisation.

The Iranian strikes, which killed at least two children, drew a sharp rebuke from Pakistan, which recalled its Ambassador from Tehran and blocked Iran’s envoy from returning to Islamabad.

Tehran also summoned Islamabad’s charge d’affaires over Pakistan’s strikes on Thursday, which left at least nine persons killed.

On Friday, Mr. Jilani and Mr. Amir-Abdollahian agreed in a phone conversation “to de-escalate the situation” between the two countries.

Last week’s rare military actions in the porous border region of Baluchistan — split between the two nations — had stoked regional tensions already inflamed by the Israel-Hamas war.

Sistan-Baluchistan is one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim provinces in Shiite-dominated Iran.

It has seen persistent unrest involving cross-border drug-smuggling gangs and rebels from the Baluchi ethnic minority, as well as jihadists.