Iran calls on ‘brotherly’ Pakistan to check terrorist bases on its soil

Iran has addressed “the friendly and brotherly government of Pakistan” after a tiff over Islamabad’s drone attack on an Iranian village near their border, calling on the neighboring state to prevent the establishment of "terrorist bases" on its soil.  

In a statement issued on Thursday, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said it “condemns the unbalanced and unacceptable action of Pakistan in the drone attack on non-Iranian citizens in a village on the border wall of the two countries”. 

Nine people, including four children, were killed after Islamabad admitted attacking a village in Saravan in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, characterizing it a response to Tehran’s operation against terrorist bases inside Pakistan.

“While the Islamic Republic adheres to the policy of good neighborliness and brotherhood between the two nations and the two governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Pakistan and does not allow the enemies to darken the good and fraternal relations between the two countries, it considers the security of the people and the territorial integrity of the country as its red line,” the ministry statement in Tehran said.

“And it strongly expects the friendly and brotherly government of Pakistan to adhere to its commitments in preventing the establishment of bases and armed terrorist groups on Pakistan's soil,” it added.

Iran said on Tuesday it had hit bases of Jaish al-Adl inside Pakistan to prevent another attack after 11 Iranian policemen were killed by the terrorist group in its hit-and-run raid on a police station in the city of Rask last month.   

In the Tuesday incident, the ministry said, the border outpost of the IRGC “upon seeing the preparation of a terrorist group to leave for the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran to carry out another terrorist operation similar to the criminal act in Rask, took preventive action against the terrorist group in its barracks and headquarters in the heights of the region and kilometers away from residential areas”.

“This procedure is part of the inherent duties of the border forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran to deal with any imminent terrorist threat against the people and citizens of the country,” the ministry said.

“The account of the government of Pakistan as a friend and brother is separate from armed terrorists and the Islamic Republic of Iran always adheres to its neighborly policy and does not allow its enemies and terrorist allies to strain these relations, especially when the genocide and crimes of the Zionist regime are the first issue of the Islamic world,” it concluded.

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