Pakistan, Iran envoys to return by Jan 26: FO

In a major breakthrough, Islamabad and Tehran have agreed that ambassadors of both countries would return to their respective posts by January 26, 2024.

In a joint statement issued on Monday, the Foreign Office said that at the invitation of Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian will undertake a visit to Pakistan on January, 29.

In a post on X, Pakistan's Ambassador to Iran Mudassir Tipu said he was "so delighted that leaderships of both Pakistan and Iran so deftly handled a challenging moment astutely- swiftly putting relations back on track".

"We have great potential ahead & both brotherly countries must collectively promote peace & development in region," he added.

Pakistan on January 17 withdrew its ambassador from Iran and announced that it would not allow the Iranian envoy visiting his home country at that time to return to protest at a "blatant breach" of its sovereignty after Tehran said it launched missile attacks on militant bases in southwestern Pakistan. 

The next day, on January 18, Pakistan launched strikes on terrorists’ hideouts inside Iran in a retaliatory attack two days after Tehran violated the country’s sovereignty by launching a strike in Balochistan that left two children dead and injured three girls.

In a statement, the Pakistan Army said the hideouts used by terrorist militant organisations, namely Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF), were successfully struck in an intelligence-based operation, code-named — "Marg Bar Sarmachar".

The tit-for-tat strikes were the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm over wider instability in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct 7.

Against the backdrop of the war in Gaza, Iran and its militia allies around the Middle East have been carrying out attacks on Israeli and US targets in the region in support of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.