Pakistan asks both sides to exercise maximum restraint and comply with the charger of the United Nation to avoid conflict in the region. However, he has also made it clear that Pakistan will not allow anyone to use its soil against anyone.
ISLAMABAD (Urdu Point/Pakistan Point News-Jan 6th, 2020) Amid recent escalation of tensions between US and Iran, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi telephoned his counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Iran, UAE and Turkey on the unfolding situation in the region.
According to the reports, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi highlighted Pakistan’s deep concerns over the recent development and emphasized over imperative of avoidance of conflict, exercise of maximum restraint, and de-escalation of tensions for both sides. He asked both sides to comply with the UN Charter and International law to overcome the differences through peaceful means. Pakistan, he told them, would neither let its soil be used against any other State nor become part of any regional conflict.
The Foreign Minister expressed the hope that the progress made in the Afghan peace process would be preserved and further advanced. FM Qureshi reiterated Pakistan’s readiness to continue to play a role in preventing further escalation and maintaining regional peace and stability.
On the other side, Iraq’s foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador on the back of repeated US air strikes on Iraqi soil that killed Iraqi militia fighters and Iranian General Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muahndis.
The foreign ministry said the act was, “a flagrant breach of Iraq’s sovereignty and of all international laws and norms that regulate relations between countries and prohibit the use of their lands to carry out attacks on neighbouring countries.”
An official complaint, according to the ministry, was also sent to the UN secretary general and UN Security Council over US air strikes and killing of Iraqi and allied commanders.
A US drone strike killed General Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s elite Quds Force and Abu Mahdi al-Mohandes, the deputy commander of Iran-backed militias known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF of Iraq at at Baghdad’s international airport on Friday.
Several rockets fell on Saturday near the United States embassy in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone which houses government buildings and foreign missions but caused no casualties, the Iraqi military said.
