Pakistan and Iran foreign ministers in talks after retaliatory drone and missile strikes

Pakistan expressed its willingness to work with Iran on “all issues” after both countries exchanged drone and missile strikes on militant bases in each other’s territory.

The tit-for-tat strikes by the two countries are the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider Middle East conflict stemming from the Israel-Gaza war.

However, both sides have already signalled a desire to cool tensions, although they have had a history of rocky relations.

A statement said Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani had spoken to his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian on Friday, a day after Pakistan carried out strikes in Iran.

Iran said Thursday’s strikes killed nine people in a border village on its territory, including four children.

Pakistan said the Iranian attack on Tuesday killed two children.

The groups struck by Pakistan have been waging an armed insurgency for decades against the state, including attacks against Chinese citizens and investment projects in Balochistan.

The JAA, which Iran attacked, is also an ethnic militant group, but with Sunni Islamist leanings seen as a threat by Iran, which is mainly Shi’ite.

JAA, which has had links to Islamic State, has carried out attacks in Iran against its powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, Iran and its allies have been flexing their muscles in the region.

This week Iran also launched strikes on Syria against what it said were Islamic State sites, and Iraq, where it said it had struck an Israeli espionage centre.

Reuters