Iran and Pakistan set to meet on Monday to repair ties after tit-for-tat strikes, decline China’s mediation offer

The two countries have a ‘joint interest in combating the menace’ of Baloch militants waging war against both sides, a Pakistani official says

Iran’s decision to quickly cool tensions with Pakistan is an acknowledgement that its initial military action in Pakistani territory is ‘an own goal’

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Pakistan activists protest in Lahore on January 19 after Iran launched an airstrike in Pakistan’s Balochistan province. Photo: TNS

Published: 7:15pm, 25 Jan 2024Updated: 7:47pm, 25 Jan 2024

The foreign ministers of Iran and Pakistan will focus on avoiding a repeat of last week’s tit-for-tat cross-border air strikes at talks set to take place in Islamabad next Monday, according to officials in both countries.

While China has offered to mediate between both sides, Iran and Pakistan are expected to turn Beijing down as the two neighbours believe they can resolve the conflict on their own and quickly restore their historically cordial and close ties.

The two countries have a “joint interest in combating the menace” of the ethnic Baloch militant groups waging insurgencies against Pakistani and Iranian security forces, a senior Pakistani official told This Week In Asia on condition of anonymity, citing diplomatic sensitivities.

The official said the Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian would discuss with his Pakistani counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani on “how best to combat” the threat posed by ethnic Baloch insurgents from their hideouts in the remote region bordering both countries, which was also a haven for human smugglers and narcotics traffickers.

He said “both sides will have ideas” but talks will focus on “what could have been done to avoid” Iran’s air strikes against the anti-Iran militant group Jaish al-Adl (Army of Justice), whose members are mostly ethnic Baloch, in the western Pakistani region of Panjgur on January 18, in which two children were killed and three other people were injured.

Islamabad retaliated the following night by launching air strikes on the hideouts of two anti-Pakistan Baloch insurgent groups based in the southeastern Iranian area of Saravan, killing nine people.

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