Daily Times

Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaarul Haq Kakar summoned a National Security Committee (NSC) meeting on Friday after announcing that he would be cutting short his visit to Davos for the 54th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) amidst cross-border intrusions and heightened regional tension between Pakistan and Iran

The meeting will be attended by cabinet members of the interim government, chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee and all three service chiefs.

Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, leading the Pakistan delegation to the Ministerial Meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Kampala, Uganda, will also be returning shortly. The decision comes as Pakistan carried out ‘highly coordinated’, ‘precision strikes’ on terrorist hideouts in Iran’s Sistan-o-Balochistan province.

The retaliation came over a day after Tehran carried out missile and drone strikes in Pakistan’s Panjgur. The strikes were launched the day Kakar met with the Iranian foreign minister on the sidelines of the WEF in Davos, Switzerland.

FM Jilani received also a telephone call from the Foreign Minister of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian.

The foreign minister firmly underscored that the attack conducted by Iran inside the Pakistani territory, on January 16, was not only a serious breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty but was also an egregious violation of international law and the spirit of bilateral relations between Pakistan and Iran.

Expressing Pakistan’s unreserved condemnation of the attack, the foreign minister added that the incident has caused serious damage to the bilateral ties between Pakistan and Iran. The foreign minister added that Pakistan reserved the right to respond to this provocative act. Furthermore, Iranian FM Abdollahian said on the sidelines of WEF, “None of the nationals of the friendly and brotherly country of Pakistan were targeted by Iranian missiles and drones.”

“The so-called Jaish al-Adl group, which is an Iranian terrorist group, was targeted,” he added. Abdollahian also said he spoke to his Pakistani counterpart and assured him that Iran “respects” Pakistan’s sovereignty. However, he added that Iran would not hesitate to act if its national security and interests came under threat.