Iran's foreign minister Amir-Abdollahian to visit Pakistan next week amid tension

Iran’s foreign minister will visit the country next week, Pakistan said on Monday signalling efforts to rebuild ties after the neighbours exchanged missile strikes last week at what they said were militant targets. “At the invitation of Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, will undertake a visit to Pakistan on 29 January 2024,” a Pakistan foreign office statement said. In recent years, the tit-for-tat strikes between the two countries have been the highest-profile cross-border intrusions, raising concerns about broader instability in the region, particularly since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas on Oct. 7. According to Islamabad, it targeted bases of the separatist Baloch Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army. Meanwhile, Tehran stated that its missiles hit militants from the Jaish al Adl (JAA) group. Ambassadors of both countries have also been asked to return to their posts by Jan. 26, the Pakistan foreign ministry said in a statement. Pakistan had recalled its ambassador to Tehran and had not allowed his counterpart to return to Islamabad, as well as cancelling all high-level diplomatic and trade engagements. The militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped. With inputs from agencies.