(Islamabad) Pakistan and Iran announced on Friday that they had agreed to a “de-escalation” of tensions, after an exchange of deadly strikes this week between the two countries.
The reciprocal bombings, which took place in the region of Baluchistan which the two countries share and whose border is very porous, have further accentuated regional tensions, at a time when the Middle East is shaken by the war between the movement Palestinian Islamist Hamas to Israel in the Gaza Strip.
Pakistani authorities convened a security council on Friday including the heads of the army and military intelligence, after responding Thursday morning – in turn targeting “terrorist hideouts” in Iran – to an Iranian attack on Tuesday evening with a missile and to the drone targeting a “terrorist” group in Pakistani territory.
These two attacks left a total of 11 dead, mainly women and children, according to the authorities.
Pakistan recalled its ambassador to Tehran and announced that Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, who was in his country, would be prevented from returning to Islamabad.
The United Nations and the United States have called for restraint, while China has offered to mediate.
But after a telephone conversation between Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, Pakistani diplomacy announced in a summary of their conversation that they had “agreed to de-escalate the situation”.
“The two foreign ministers agreed that cooperation and coordination on counter-terrorism and other areas of common concern should be strengthened,” Pakistani diplomacy further indicated.
In a statement, the Iranian minister stressed for his part that “cooperation between the two countries to neutralize and destroy terrorist camps in Pakistan is essential”.
Iran and Pakistan — the only Muslim country with nuclear weapons — have for decades faced latent insurgencies along their common border, a thousand kilometers long, and frequently accuse each other of allowing these rebel groups to operate from their respective territories.
Calmed rhetoric
This calm rhetoric corresponds to the predictions of experts, who estimated that both camps were seeking appeasement after these strikes.
Pakistani Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar cut short his trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, after the strikes.
He is the head of an interim government responsible for preparing for the holding of legislative elections on February 8, in which the army has been accused of interfering.
Both Tehran and Islamabad claimed to have bombed insurgents taking refuge abroad.
But never before have Pakistan and Iran, who until then maintained friendly relations, carried out strikes of such magnitude on their neighbor’s territory.
In isolated villages near the bombing area in western Pakistan’s Panjgur district, security forces have set up checkpoints.
“Helicopters flew overhead and went towards the area that Iran bombed, but we didn’t know what happened,” Maulana Mohammad Sadiq, 42, a chef, told AFP. of prayer at a small seminary located some five kilometers from where an Iranian missile struck.
Villagers fear that a deterioration in relations between the two countries will lead to the closure of borders with Iran, on which the region is economically dependent.
“If the Iranians close the border, people will starve and there will be more insurgents, because young people will join separatist organizations,” said one of them, Haji Mohammad Islam, 55.
The Baloch insurgency against the Pakistani authorities is demanding better sharing of mineral resources.
According to human rights organizations, military repression has led to a number of disappearances and extrajudicial executions.