Pakistan sends back its ambassador to Iran

ISLAMABAD

Pakistan on Friday sent back its ambassador to Iran to resume his duties in Tehran following a diplomatic row triggered by an exchange of missile attacks on each other’s territories last week.

Confirming the development, Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch told Anadolu that the ambassador “is en route” to Tehran.

On Monday, the two countries agreed to send back their ambassadors to their respective posts.

“Following the telephone conversation between the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, it has been mutually agreed that ambassadors of both countries may return to their respective posts by 26 January 2024,” said a statement earlier issued by Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is also expected to arrive in Pakistan on Jan. 29 at the invitation of his counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani.

Tensions between the two neighbors heightened last week when Iran claimed to have struck a “terrorist hideout” in the border town of Panjgur in southwestern Balochistan province on Jan. 17, prompting Islamabad to recall its ambassador from Tehran.

In less than 48 hours after Iranian airstrikes, Pakistani forces “targeted militants’ hideouts” in a village in Saravan city of Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Later Iranian state media said that the attack killed nine people, all of whom were "foreign nationals."