A day after Iran launched air strikes on Pakistan, Islamabad on Wednesday recalled its ambassador to Tehran. The air strikes, Iran had claimed, were targeted at the bases of a Sunni militant group, Jaish al-Adl. The group seeks an independent Balochistan and has spread across Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. It acknowledged the incident in an online statement.
Pakistan had denounced the attack as a “blatant violation” of its airspace, and said it killed two children. It has further deemed the strikes as a “violation of international law and the purposes and principles of the charter of the UN”. Though the airstrike on Pakistan’s restive southwestern Baluchistan province imperilled relations between the two neighbours, they remain wary of provoking each other. However, news agency Associated Press learnt from a senior Pakistani security official that Iran had no information prior to the strike. The official added that Pakistan reserved the right to respond at a time and place of the country’s choosing and such a strike would be measured and in line with public expectations.
Presenting India’s perspective on the incident, spokesperson at the Ministry of External Affairs Randhir Jaiswal, in a statement shared on social media platform ‘X’, put forth that India had an “uncompromising position of zero tolerance towards terrorism”, further stating, “We understand actions that countries take in their self-defence”. He maintained that it was a matter between Iran and Pakistan.
India’s comment reflects support to Iran notwithstanding the growing tensions in West Asia between Iran and U.S. about the occurrences in Gaza, U.S. strikes on Yemen and attacks by Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea. This is whilst Adrienne Watson, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, has condemned the strikes against Iraq, calling them “reckless and imprecise”.
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