Pakistan recalls ambassador to Iran over deadly airstrike

  • 9 months ago

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Transcript
00:00 The Pakistani government has announced to call back its ambassador from Iran and the
00:04 Iranian ambassador in Islamabad, Pakistan, who is not in the country, has been asked not to return.
00:10 For now, Pakistan has also suspended all high-level official visits to Iran.
00:15 The spokesperson of Pakistan's foreign office in a press conference has said, and I quote,
00:21 that Pakistan deserves the right to respond to this illegal act, and the responsibility for the
00:26 consequences will lie surely with Iran. And that was what the spokesperson of Pakistan's
00:33 foreign office had to say. Earlier today, we also saw a statement issued by the Chinese foreign
00:38 office calling for restraint on both sides. According to Pakistani officials, the village
00:44 that was attacked is on the border with Iran in Balochistan province. Even though Iran's
00:50 semi-state-owned news agency had claimed that Iranian strike targeted the hideouts of Jaish-e-Adil
00:58 group, an anti-Iran Sunni extremist group, but according to Pakistani officials, the missile
01:03 landed in a village called Koh-e-Sabs, killing two and injuring three young girls. For now,
01:08 we haven't had any official response from Iranian side in the connection to Tuesday's strike.
01:13 Shazi, relations between Iran and Pakistan are usually good.
01:17 What could this mean for the relationship between the two?
01:19 Well, the Iranian strike happened at a time when just hours before Pakistan's caretaker
01:26 prime minister, Enmaul Haq Qaqer, met the Iranian foreign minister at the sidelines of World
01:31 Economic Forum in Davos in Switzerland. This strike actually came as a shock for many in Islamabad,
01:38 as Iran and Pakistan have had considerably good and sometimes delicate relationship. According
01:44 to experts, there is a certain sense of betrayal in Islamabad from Iran's side, as Pakistan has
01:50 been a supporter of Iran's case on international front, especially when it comes to the sanctions
01:55 against Iran, as Pakistan has considered them to be a communal punishment. The relationship
02:00 between the two countries have always had an element of coordination and strategy. So,
02:06 the Tuesday strike creates an environment of mistrust and for sure complicates the
02:10 relationship between the two neighboring countries.

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