Iran and Pakistan appear set to resume normal diplomatic relations following tit-for-tat missile strikes last week that left several people dead on both sides of their shared border.
According to Pakistan’s foreign ministry, both countries have agreed to return their ambassadors—who were recalled after the strikes—to their respective posts.
“After a telephone conversation between the foreign ministers of Pakistan and Iran, it has been mutually agreed that ambassadors of both countries may return to their respective posts by Jan. 26,” the ministry said in a Jan. 22 statement.
Both countries have also confirmed that Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian will visit Islamabad next week at the invitation of Jalil Abbas Jilani, his Pakistani counterpart.
The conciliatory gestures come almost a week after Iran struck targets in Pakistan’s Balochistan region with dozens of missiles and drones.
According to Iranian officials, the Jan. 16 strikes targeted sites associated with the Jaish al-Adl group, a Baloch terrorist group that’s opposed to Tehran. Designated by Washington as a foreign terrorist organization, Jaish al-Adl is said to have carried out several previous attacks on targets inside Iran.
Jaish al-Adl is reportedly allied with the ISIS terrorist group, which overran much of Iraq and Syria in 2014.
Despite the group’s dubious associations, Pakistan condemned the Iranian strikes—which left two children dead—as a “blatant violation” of its sovereignty.
It also recalled its ambassador from Tehran while barring Iran’s ambassador from returning to Islamabad.
Pakistan upped the ante on Jan. 18, launching its own missile strikes against targets in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchistan province.
The Iranian province shares a lengthy border with Pakistan’s southwestern Balochistan region.
According to Islamabad, the retaliatory strikes hit sites linked to the Baloch Liberation Front, which claims to seek Balochistan’s independence from Pakistan.
For two decades, the Baloch Liberation Front has waged a low-intensity armed insurrection against the Pakistani state.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry later claimed that a number of Baloch “terrorists” had been killed by what it described as “precision strikes on terrorist hideouts.”
Tehran, for its part, said Pakistan’s missile barrage had struck a border village, leaving nine people dead—all foreign nationals.
Swiftly Reconciled
The rare missile exchange served to fuel concerns about the potential for broader conflict in an already factious and volatile region.“Whenever you see strikes in the region—given the tensions in the region—there is the risk for an increase in conflict,” U.S. State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said at a Jan. 18 press briefing.
But reconciliation between the two South Asian neighbors wasn’t long in coming.
On Jan. 19, Anwaarul Haq Kakar, Pakistan’s acting prime minister, called a meeting of the country’s National Security Committee in hopes of defusing the crisis.
In a statement issued shortly afterward, Mr. Kakar described Iran as “our neighbor and a fellow Muslim nation.”
“Multiple communication channels exist between our two countries,” he said.
“These should be used to address each other’s security concerns in the interest of regional peace and stability.”
Mr. Kakar also voiced hope that Pakistan and Iran would be able to “overcome minor irritants through dialogue and diplomacy and ... further deepen our historic relations.”
At the same time, however, Pakistan’s security committee stated that any threat to the country’s territory—by Iran or anyone else—would be met with “the full might of the state.”
Security Cooperation
Tehran, meanwhile, has been quick to respond to Islamabad’s overture.In a Jan. 19 statement, the foreign ministry stressed Iran’s adherence to a “policy of good neighborliness between the two nations and governments.”
On the same day, the two foreign ministers spoke by phone in hopes of reducing tensions.
During the call, Mr. Abdollahian emphasized Tehran’s respect for Pakistan’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
But he also called for sustained “security and military cooperation,” which, he said, had been “previously agreed to by the leadership of both countries.”
Tehran’s top diplomat went on to assert that the Iranian strikes against Jaish al-Adl targets had served to “neutralize an imminent terrorist threat.”
“Collaboration between our two countries to neutralize and destroy terrorist camps in Pakistan is essential,” he told his Pakistani counterpart.
Mr. Jilani, for his part, stressed Pakistan’s readiness to “work with Iran on all issues based on a spirit of mutual trust and cooperation,” according to a statement released by his office.
The acting prime minister also reportedly underscored “the need for closer cooperation on security issues.”
Soon afterward, Iranian media reported that security forces had clashed with ISIS terrorists in the country’s southeast, killing two and seizing arms and explosives.
On Jan. 22, Pakistan said security forces had killed seven fighters in Balochistan during a shootout near the Afghan border.
