Pakistani Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said his country "has no interest or desire" to escalate tensions with neighboring Iran after cross-border skirmishes this week killed at least 11 people on both sides.
Pakistani warplanes launched air strikes early on January 18 on alleged militant targets in Iran, an attack that Tehran said killed at least nine people, including six children and two women.
Jilani, who is heading the Foreign Ministry as part of caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul-Haq Kakar's government, told his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, during a call on January 19 that Pakistan targeted "terrorist camps" belonging to Baluch separatists "inside Iran."
"Pakistan has no interest or desire in escalation," Jilani said, according to a short statement issued by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry after the call.
Later, Jilani emphasized the need for "closer cooperation on security issues" in a call with his Iranian counterpart, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, according to a statement by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
Amir-Abdollahian told Jilani that the two countries should "seriously pursue" cooperation, the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a separate statement, adding that Jilani had invited Amir-Abdollahian to make an "official visit" to Islamabad.
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Pakistan Attacks Targets In Iran After Iranian Air Strikes Cross Border
The strikes in Sistan-Baluchistan Province came after an attack by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in Pakistan's southwestern Balochistan Province on January 16 that killed two children. Tehran said it targeted the Sunni Baluch militant group Jaish al-Adl, which is designated as a terrorist entity by both Iran and the United States.
Jilani's comment comes as Pakistan’s National Security Committee (NSC), which brings together the country’s top civilian and military figures, is set to convene a meeting on January 19 to discuss the standoff with Iran.
On January 18, Fidan spoke to Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, who expressed his country's desire to "expand relations with neighboring countries."
In Zahedan, the capital of Iran's Sistan-Baluchestan Province, protesters took to the streets after Friday Prayers on January 19 to condemn what they described as the "ethnic cleansing" of the Baluch people. Videos shared on social media by Haalvsh, a group that monitors rights violations in the impoverished province, showed protesters chanting against the Iranian leadership, the IRGC, and Pakistan.
The tit-for-tat strikes have plunged relations between Iran and nuclear-armed Pakistan into crisis and threatened to ignite a full-scale war in the volatile region, experts say.
SEE ALSO: Cross-Border Strikes A Major Escalation In Long-Running Iran-Pakistan DisputePakistan recalled its ambassador following Iran's strikes on January 16 and told the Iranian ambassador, who was in Tehran at the time, not to return to Islamabad.
While criticizing Islamabad for the scale of the attack, Iran's Foreign Ministry on January 18 appeared to try to allay concerns of rising tensions, striking a conciliatory tone in its statement by referring to Pakistan as a "friend and brother."
SEE ALSO: Iran Tries To Allay Fears Of Rising Tensions Following Pakistan Cross-Border AttacksThe porous, 900-kilometer border between Iran and Pakistan has proved difficult to control, allowing various militant groups, particularly those who harbor Baluch nationalist ideologies, to operate in the area.
On January 16, Iraq also recalled its envoy from Tehran after civilians were killed in an IRGC missile strike in Irbil in Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region. Iranian missiles also struck Idlib in Syria.
The IRGC said the attacks in Iraq and Syria had targeted "spy headquarters" and "terrorist" targets.