• Border hostilities between Afghanistan and Pakistan escalated Saturday as 2 armies engaged in cross-border shelling and firing of heavy artillery

KARACHI, Pakistan

Several Middle Eastern countries on Sunday called on Pakistan and Afghanistan to show restraint amid escalating border tensions that led to overnight clashes between the two forces.

Saudi Arabia, with which Pakistan has recently signed a mutual defense deal, urged the two sides to avoid escalation and embrace dialogue.

“The kingdom calls for restraint, avoiding escalation, and embracing dialogue and wisdom to contribute to reducing tensions and maintaining security and stability in the region," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

“The kingdom affirms its support for all regional and international efforts aimed at promoting peace and stability, and its continued commitment to ensuring security, which will achieve stability and prosperity for the brotherly Pakistani and Afghan peoples,” the statement added.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also called on Islamabad and Kabul to exercise restraint.

“Our position is that both sides must exercise restraint,” Araghchi said in an interview with state television on Saturday, adding that “stability” between the countries “contributes to regional stability”.

Qatar also urged both sides to prioritize dialogue, diplomacy, and restraint, and to work toward containing differences in a manner that helps to reduce tension and avoid escalation.

Qatar, a Foreign Ministry statement said, supports all regional and international efforts aimed at strengthening international peace and security, and affirmed its commitment to ensuring security and prosperity for the people of the two countries.

On Saturday, Pakistani and Afghan border forces engaged in artillery firing, accusing each other of escalating border tensions.

The latest escalation came a day after Afghanistan’s interim Taliban administration accused the Pakistani army of violating airspace over the capital Kabul and bombing a market in the Margha region of the Paktika province bordering Pakistan on Thursday night.

Islamabad neither confirmed nor denied it was behind the attacks, but said it will do everything to protect its citizens, as Pakistan has witnessed a surge in terrorism, which it blames on the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

Both countries, which share a 2,640-kilometer (1,640-mile) porous border, have claimed causing "heavy losses" to each other.

According to a statement from the interim Afghan Defense Ministry, Kabul launched attacks "in response to repeated violations of Afghanistan’s airspace and airstrikes carried out on Afghan territory by the Pakistani military."

The ministry said in a brief statement that Afghan forces "conducted successful retaliatory operations targeting Pakistani security outposts along the Durand Line. These operations concluded at Saturday midnight (local time)."

Pakistan claims the TTP militants are based in Afghanistan and accuses Kabul of failing to prevent terrorists belonging to the TTP, a conglomerate of several militant groups, from carrying out attacks in Pakistan.

Afghanistan, however, denies the charges, reaffirming its commitment not to allow its soil to be used for attacks on its neighbor.