TEHRAN, Jan 29 (NNN-IRNA) – Iran’s Foreign Minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, yesterday accused the country’s enemies, of using “the tool of terrorism” to target Iran’s neighbour-oriented policy, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.
He made the remarks at a conference on Iran’s foreign relations history, while commenting on the recent events and developments in Tehran’s ties with Islamabad and Baghdad.
Amir-Abdollahian gave the assurance that, Iran had a special focus on expanding relations with its neighbours, and had seen and defined security within the framework of its “neighbourliness policy.”
The minister said, the past days witnessed certain “anti-Iran terrorist movements” in parts of Iraq’s Kurdistan Region and Pakistan’s Balochistan Province, as well as, “terrorists that targeted the security of Iran and its neighbours, including Iraq and Pakistan.”
He added that, the Iranian side has held “constructive and positive talks” with these countries’ officials, to find a common understanding and political solutions to the developments.
On Jan 16, Iran said, it had launched missile strikes on the bases of “terrorists” and Israel’s intelligence service, Mossad, in Syria and Iraq’s Kurdistan Region, respectively, in response to recent anti-Iran “terror” attacks. A few hours later on the same day, Iranian media reported that Iran had struck a base of the “Jaish ul-Adl terrorist group” in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Both Iraq and Pakistan condemned Iran’s strikes. On Jan 18, Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Tehran and launched a missile strike on a border village in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, claiming to have targeted “terrorists’ hideouts.”
The brief tension between Iran and Pakistan eased after phone talks between the two foreign ministers, and the return of Iran’s Ambassador, Reza Amiri Moqaddam, to Islamabad and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Tehran, Muhammad Mudassir Tipu, to their respective posts on Friday.
According to a joint statement recently released by Iran and Pakistan, Amir-Abdollahian would visit Pakistan today, at the invitation of his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani.– NNN-IRNA
