Pakistan’s retaliatory strikes on Iran sparks country’s security review involving civil and military leaders
Pakistan’s top civilian and military leaders are carrying out a security review regarding the stand-off with neighbouring Iran, the information minister says, following their strikes on each other with drones and missiles.
Pakistan’s strikes on Thursday on separatist militants inside Iran, which reportedly left 11 dead, were a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran said it struck the bases of another group within Pakistani territory.
The review will be conducted at a meeting of the National Security Committee - attended by all the service chiefs - to be chaired by caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar ul Haq Kakar.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.It aims at a “broad national security review in the aftermath of the Iran-Pakistan incidents”, the minister, Murtaza Solangi, told Reuters by telephone.
The tit-for-tat strikes are the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider instability in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7.
However, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch played down the strikes on Iran in a briefing at the Ministry of Affairs building in Islamabad on Thursday.
“Pakistan considers people of Iran as our friends and brothers and we have no interest in escalating any situation,” said Ms Baloch.
