Syed Zafar Mahdi
17 January 2024•Update: 17 January 2024
TEHRAN, Iran
Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian claimed Wednesday that the Jaish al-Adl militant group was the target of Iranian strikes in Pakistan.
In the first acknowledgment by a senior Iranian government official, Amir-Abdollahian, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, claimed that “no civilians” were targeted in the missile and drone strikes carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in southwestern Pakistan’s Balochistan province on Tuesday.
He insisted that only “terrorists” were hit in the attack that was strongly condemned by the Pakistani government and has since sparked massive outcry in the South Asian country bordering Iran.
Iranian media reported that at least two headquarters of the militant group were destroyed in the attack in the Koh e Sabz area of Balochistan.
According to media reports, the strikes were in retaliation for an attack on a police station in the city of Rask in southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province in December, which killed 11 police officers.
Amir-Abdollahian said he assured Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar during their meeting on the sidelines of the Davos summit on Tuesday that Iran “respects Pakistan's territorial sovereignty.”
On Wednesday, Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Iran, accusing Tehran of violating its sovereignty by carrying out the strikes that killed two children and injured three others.
As for Monday’s IRGC missile strike in northern Iraq, the Iranian foreign minister claimed that the target was a cell belonging to the Israeli spy agency Mossad in the region.
Tehran “respects the territorial integrity of Iraq,” he said, adding that Tehran had “shared intelligence with Iraq about Mossad activities” in northern Iraq.
On Monday night, the IRGC claimed that its ballistic missile strike targeted a Mossad site in Erbil. Missile strikes were also carried out against what the IRGC called “terrorist gatherings” in Syria’s Idlib in retaliation for attacks in the Iranian cities of Kerman and Rask.
Gaza conflict
As for the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, Amir-Abdollahian said Iran does not consider Hamas a “terrorist group” but a “liberation movement against the (Israeli) occupation.”
He said the US has made a mistake by “supporting the genocide and ethnic cleansing” in Gaza while slamming Tel Aviv for “ignoring all UN resolutions adopted in support of Palestinians' rights.”
Israel has launched a deadly military offensive on the Gaza Strip since an Oct. 7 attack by Hamas, killing at least 24,448 people and injuring 61,504 others. Nearly 1,200 Israelis are believed to have been killed in the Hamas attack.
About 85% of Gazans have been displaced by the Israeli onslaught, while all of them are food insecure, according to the UN. Hundreds of thousands of people are living without shelter, and less than half of aid trucks are entering the territory than before the start of the conflict.
On the current tensions in the Red Sea, where Iran-allied Houthis have in recent weeks attacked commercial ships suspected to have links with Israel, Amir-Abdollahian said the security of the Red Sea is linked to the Gaza conflict.
Houthis say their attacks aim to pressure Israel to halt its deadly onslaught on the Gaza Strip, prompting the US and UK to launch airstrikes against Houthi targets in Yemen in retaliation for the attacks, which have created fears of a new bout of inflation and supply chain disruption.
Amir-Abdollahian said Iran has information about Yemen and Saudi Arabia inching closer to a peace deal and restoration of relations.
There was no comment yet from Saudi authorities on the claim.
