Iranian, Saudi officials on trip to India amid tensions with Pakistan

NEW DELHI

Iranian and Saudi officials are visiting India amid heightened tensions with neighboring Pakistan.

Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar met Saudi Arabian State Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir in New Delhi.

“Shared India’s perspectives on firmly countering terrorism,” Jaishankar said on X. The visit by Jubeir was not publicly announced.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi arrived in New Delhi for a meeting of India-Iran Joint Commission.

Araghci visited Pakistan early this week before his trip to India.

Tensions between India and Pakistan escalated this week after India announced “Operation Sindoor” late Tuesday night, saying it struck “terrorist infrastructure" at nine locations in Pakistan. Indian officials said New Delhi exercised its “right to respond and pre-empt as well as deter more such cross-border attacks.”

The Pakistani military said 31 people were killed in the Indian missile attacks and cross-border firing in Pakistan-administered Kashmir.

According to Indian officials, 13 people and one Indian soldier were killed in cross-border firing along the Line of Control (LoC) -- a de facto border that divides the disputed Himalayan region between the two arch rivals -- in Indian-administered Kashmir.

The tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors came in the wake of the April 22 attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed.

India blamed Pakistan for the attack, claiming there were cross-border links. Pakistan denied involvement and called for a neutral probe.

Pakistan said it had shot down five Indian aircraft and vowed to retaliate. There was no official response from New Delhi.

Pakistan's military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on Thursday said forces neutralized 25 Harop drones fired by India overnight, calling it a "serious provocation." He said a civilian was killed and four Pakistani soldiers were injured in the drone attacks.