Pakistan recalls envoy from Iran after 'unprovoked' missile strikes

  17 January 2024    Read: 1222
Pakistan recalls envoy from Iran after

Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Iran on Wednesday after Iran violated its airspace in a 'blatant breach' of its sovereignty, a Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman said, as the incident stoked tensions between the two Muslim neighbours, Reuters reported.

Pakistan said on Tuesday the airspace violation, which Iranian state media said came as Iranian missiles targeted two bases of the militant group Jaish al Adl, had resulted in the deaths of two children.

Iran's Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian said it hit militants in "missile and drone" strikes, saying no Pakistani national was targeted. Pakistan has not confirmed the nature of the violation, or the location of the strikes.

Only "terrorists" were hit, the Iranian foreign minister said at Davos, Switzerland, where he was participating in the World Economic Forum, alleging that those targeted were linked to Israel.

Provincial officials in Pakistan said two children were killed and several others injured by missile strikes near the Iran border.

The violation was an unprovoked and blatant breach of Pakistan's sovereignty and was "unacceptable," the Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said, adding that the country reserved "the right to respond to this illegal act."

Pakistan and Iran have in the past had rocky relations, but the strikes are the highest-profile cross-border intrusion in recent years.


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