Let’s move on now to Pakistan, which has confirmed it’s carried out missile strikes inside Iran, targeting militants of Pakistani origin. Earlier, Iranian media reported that several missiles had hit a village on the Iran-Pakistan border in the Sistan-Balochistan province. A number of people reported to have been injured. It comes two days after Iran conducted strikes inside Pakistani territory, saying it was targeting anti-Iran groups.
(00:26)
Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement about its military action inside Iran. It says it used specifically targeted precision strikes against Pakistani terrorists who’ve based themselves in ungoverned spaces inside Iran. It says it had shared evidence of their activities, but no action was taken. It says Pakistan acted now because it had credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities.
Mumtaz Zahra Baloch (00:52):
This morning, Pakistan undertook a series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts in Sistan-O-Balochistan province of Iran. A number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation code named Marg Bar Sarmachar.
(01:15)
This morning’s action was taken in light of credible intelligence of impending large-scale terrorist activities against Pakistan by these terrorists. This action is a manifestation of Pakistan’s unflinching resolve to protect and defend its national security against all threats.
Speaker 1 (01:34):
Let’s go straight to Carrie Davies, who has been monitoring events there. So, Carrie, bring us up to date with the very latest on what’s been going on between Pakistan and Iran.
Caroline Davies (01:45):
So early this morning, we had a statement from Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirming that Pakistan had launched attacks on what they say are terrorist groups operating inside Iran. Now this, of course, comes after Iran admitted yesterday that it had also carried out attacks inside Pakistan’s borders on militant groups operating inside Pakistan.
(02:07)
This is a bit of an ongoing discussion between Pakistan and Iran. There have been a lot of accusations over the course of years that Pakistan and Iran both accused the other of harboring terrorist militant groups inside the borders that then come across the border, carry out attacks, and they’re then able to go back across, which makes it difficult for the nation’s security forces to be able to go and get justice. So that is the backdrop to all of this.
(02:31)
But the other thing to bear in mind is that Pakistan and Iran had up until a few days ago pretty cordial relationships. But at this point, that has deteriorated fairly dramatically.
(02:43)
So we have had reports as well from Iran state media. They now say that nine people are believed to have been killed in this particular strike that was carried out by Pakistan. What’s really interesting in the language that Pakistan is using is that it’s talking very strongly about targeting militant groups, not talking about targeting Iran itself. It’s very similar language. In fact, almost mirroring the same sort of thing that was said by Iran’s foreign minister yesterday in Davos when he was talking and saying that Iran had carried out these attacks inside Pakistan.
(03:18)
So will this all be now a line drawn underneath it, both sides feel that they’ve both done the same thing, or will we see Iran decide to retaliate? Will we see a further escalation between these two countries?
(03:31)
Bear in mind the backdrop to this as well is that in the course of the last few days, Iran has hit targets inside Syria, inside Iraq, and then inside Pakistan. It seems to be trying to show a display of strength, showing that anything that it considers to be a threat is a target. So how will it feel having been hit, or at least having had a hit happen inside its soil, even if that was not targeted at Iran and its military operations? So that will be the key question here.
(04:01)
Pakistan, in its statement, said that it referred to Iran as a brotherly nation. Well, that brotherly relationship is really under some strain.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
So you mentioned it’s under strain and we don’t quite know how it’s going to escalate or deescalate after this. Are there any intermediaries that usually step in between Pakistan and Iran to try and have a diplomatic angle on this?
Caroline Davies (04:23):
Well, it’s interesting. We did hear from China yesterday who had asked for restraint between the two countries in the way that they were going to respond to this. So that will be the big question. Is China going to step in to try to be an intermediary between these two countries?
(04:36)
At the moment, it seems fairly unlikely that either of them really want to have any form of escalation between the two sides. As I say, they normally have fairly cordial relationships. For Pakistan, it’s in an incredibly fragile situation. It’s meant to be having elections in less than a month. It’s in a very fragile economic position as well. It’s not got a great relationship, of course, with India, but it’s also had deteriorating relationship with Afghanistan as well. Does it really want a further problem with Iran on another border, too?
(05:06)
For Iran, of course, we’ve heard of multiple issues and things that Iran are dealing with around the world, different attacks. It’s also dealing with attacks on different fronts. Does it want to have Pakistan also having some form of military confrontation?
(05:20)
At the moment, both sides are talking about militant groups, very clearly saying that they are not attacking the state on the other side. But does that mean that there is still space for deescalation at this point?
Speaker 1 (05:30):
What kind of reaction has there been in the media? Is it particularly tense at the moment as a result of all this?
Caroline Davies (05:37):
Well, there has been … In social media, before the attacks happened, there were quite a lot of people arguing that there should be some form of military response from Pakistan. A lot of analysts thought that that was fairly unlikely because that’s not been what Pakistan has done in the past. But, of course, this is being covered very closely by the media here in Pakistan.
(05:55)
I think that whenever there is a potential conflict between two countries, and we’ve not really seen something like this between Iran and Pakistan in recent history, this is a real escalation of tensions between the two countries, that of course is picked up by the national media. So the key question everybody’s waiting for is what will Iran do now?
Speaker 1 (06:17):
Caroline Davies, thank you very much indeed.