ISLAMABAD: Pakistan conducted strikes inside Iran on Thursday, targeting separatist Baloch militants, its foreign ministry said, two days after Tehran said it had attacked the bases of another group within Pakistani territory.
The neighbors have had rocky relations in the past, but the strikes are the highest-profile cross-border intrusion in recent years, for which Tehran has demanded an explanation, the semi-official Tasnim news agency said.
The Iran-Pakistan exchange deepens worries about instability across the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas started on Oct. 7, with Iran’s allies also entering the fray from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen.
Pakistan’s caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-haq Kakar will cut short a visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos and return home, a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
Earlier, Iranian media said several missiles hit a village in the Sistan-Baluchestan province that borders Pakistan, killing three women and four children, all non-Iranians.
“A number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation,” Pakistan’s foreign ministry said, describing it as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts.”
“Pakistan fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the ministry added in its statement.
“The sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest, which is paramount and cannot be compromised.”
Tehran has asked Islamabad for an explanation about the strikes, Iran’s Tasnim news agency said, citing an unidentified official. Pakistan’s charge’d affaires, its most senior diplomat in Tehran, has been summoned, Iranian media said.
A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters the strikes were carried out by military aircraft.
“Our forces have conducted strikes to target Baloch militants inside Iran,” said the official in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital.
“The targeted militants belong to BLF,” he added, referring to the Baloch Liberation Front, which seeks independence for Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Iran said on Tuesday it had hit Israel-linked militant bases inside Pakistan. Both targeted groups are ethnically Baloch, but it was not clear if they co-operate.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan said civilians had been hit and two children killed, warning of consequences for which Tehran would be responsible.
Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Iran on Wednesday in protest against what it called a “blatant breach” of its sovereignty.
Escalation fears
Iran had been flexing its muscles in the region, even before its cross-border incursion into Pakistan.
It launched strikes on Syria against what Tehran said were Islamic State sites and Iraq, where it said it had struck an Israeli espionage center. Baghdad recalled its ambassador from Tehran.
The neighbors had appeared to be improving ties, with Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and Pakistan’s Kakar meeting at Davos this week, before the Iranian strikes on Pakistan.
Pakistan’s comments after its retaliatory strikes signal a desire to keep the row contained, but analysts warned it could get out of hand.
“Iran’s motivation for attacking Pakistan remains opaque but in light of broader Iranian behavior in the region it can escalate,” Asfandyr Mir, a senior expert on South Asia security at the US Institute of Peace, told Reuters.
“What will cause anxiety in Tehran is that Pakistan has crossed a line by hitting inside Iranian territory, a threshold that even the US and Israel have been careful to not breach.”
Khwaja Asif, Pakistan’s defense minister until August, said the action was retaliatory.
“A measured response has been given and it was important,” he told Geo TV. “There should be ongoing efforts on the side that this doesn’t escalate.”
Both targeted militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped.
The BLF, which Islamabad targeted inside Iran, is waging an armed insurgency against the Pakistani state.
This includes hitting Chinese citizens and investments in Balochistan, which is Pakistan’s largest province by land mass, but its least populated and developed. Large portions are lawless.
The Jaish al Adl (JAA), which Iran targeted, is also an ethnic militant group, but with Sunni Islamist leanings that primarily Shiite Iran sees as a threat.
The group has carried out attacks in Iran against its powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps.
In its previous incarnation as Jundallah, the group had pledged allegiance to Iraq- and Syria-based jihadist group Daesh.
Pakistan hits 'terrorist hideouts' in airstrike on Iran
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Pakistan hits 'terrorist hideouts' in airstrike on Iran
Iran’s Raisi ‘unbefitting of condolences’: son of ousted shah
PARIS: Iran’s former president Ebrahim Raisi, who died in a helicopter crash, is not worthy of condolences due to the rights abuses he is accused of overseeing, the son of the late Iranian shah said Monday.
US-based Reza Pahlavi, whose father Mohammad Reza Pahlavi was ousted in the 1979 Islamic revolution and died in exile in 1980, warned the death of Raisi would not affect the policies of the Islamic republic at home or abroad.
“Today, Iranians are not in mourning. Ebrahim Raisi was a brutal mass-murderer unbefitting of condolences,” Pahlavi said in a post on his official Instagram.
“Sympathy with him is an insult to his victims and the Iranian nation whose only regret is that he did not live long enough to see the fall of the Islamic republic and face trial for his crimes,” the former crown prince added.
Rights groups including Amnesty International have long accused Raisi of being a member of a four-man “death committee” involved in approving the executions of thousands of political prisoners, mostly suspected members of the outlawed opposition group People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), in 1988.
As a key figure in the judiciary ever since and then president from 2021, Raisi has also been accused of responsibility over deadly crackdowns on protesters and other violations.
But Pahlavi warned the death of Raisi, as well as that of his foreign minister Hossein-Amir Abdollahian in the same crash, will “not alter the course” of the Islamic republic, where supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has final say.
“This regime will continue its repression at home and aggression abroad,” Pahlavi said.
Pahlavi was a key member of a broad coalition of Iranian exiled opposition groups that joined together in the wake of nationwide protests that erupted in September 2022.
The coalition broke up amid tensions, but he remains an influential figure for some in the diaspora.
Pahlavi’s father the late shah, who was groomed by the West to be a Cold War ally, grew increasingly autocratic during his decades-long rule, using his feared Savak security service to crush political opposition and leading to criticism from Washington of his human rights abuses.
Biden slams ‘outrageous’ ICC bid to arrest Israeli leaders
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Monday condemned an “outrageous” request by the International Criminal Court’s prosecutor for an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As Washington moved to defend its key ally, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that the Hague-based court’s move could harm ceasefire talks to end the Gaza conflict.
ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan is seeking arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, as well as top Hamas leaders, on suspicion of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
“The ICC prosecutor’s application for arrest warrants against Israeli leaders is outrageous” Biden said in a statement.
“And let me be clear: Whatever this prosecutor might imply, there is no equivalence — none — between Israel and Hamas.”
He added that the United States “will always stand with Israel against threats to its security.”
Neither the United States nor Israel is a member of the ICC, which was set up in 2002 as a court of last resort for the world’s worst crimes.
Asked whether Biden backed ICC arrest warrants for Hamas’s leader in Gaza, Yahya Sinwar, and political chief Ismail Haniyeh, White House spokesman John Kirby said “we don’t believe the ICC has jurisdiction in this matter.”
Biden’s expression of support for Netanyahu over the ICC bid comes despite recent tensions over Israel’s war in Gaza in response to Hamas’s October 7 attack.
Washington recently withheld a shipment of bombs to Israel in a bid to it warn off an offensive in the southern city of Rafah.
Blinken said the United States “fundamentally rejects” the ICC prosecutor’s arrest bid.
“We reject the prosecutor’s equivalence of Israel with Hamas. It is shameful,” Blinken said.
Blinken added that “this decision does nothing to help, and could jeopardize, ongoing efforts to reach a ceasefire agreement that would get hostages out and surge humanitarian assistance in.”
US lawmakers were reportedly considering a legislative response punishing the ICC, amid bipartisan fury among Republicans and Democrats.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson slammed the court’s “baseless and illegitimate” decision.
He accused Biden of a “pressure campaign” against Israel, saying the country was “fighting a just war for survival.”
Biden faces political pressure on both sides ahead of a November election clash with Donald Trump, with pro-Gaza student protests roiling US campuses while Republicans accuse him of failing to fully back Israel.
The White House has previously refused to comment on whether the US could take retaliatory action including sanctions against the ICC if it targeted Israel.
In 2020, the administration of then-president Donald Trump targeted the ICC with sanctions over its investigation into Afghanistan, but the Biden administration later lifted them.
However Washington’s ambiguous position over the court is reflected by the fact that it has backed the ICC’s attempt to prosecute Russian President Vladimir Putin over the invasion of Ukraine.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Monday that the United States will keep assisting the ICC on its investigation into alleged war crimes in Ukraine despite denouncing the Israel move.
“Regarding the question of whether or not we will continue to provide support to the ICC with respect to crimes that are committed in Ukraine, yes, we continue that work,” Austin told reporters.
Russia fails in rival UN bid on nuclear, other weapons in space
UNITED NATIONS: A Russian-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that called on all countries to prevent “for all time” the placement, threat or use of any weapons in outer space failed on Monday with the 15-member body split over the move.
The draft failed to get the minimum nine votes needed: seven members voted in favor and seven against, while one abstained. A veto can only be cast by the United States, Russia, China, Britain or France if a draft gets at least nine votes.
Russia put forward the text after it vetoed a US-drafted resolution last month that called on countries to prevent an arms race in outer space. The Russian veto prompted the United States to question whether Moscow was hiding something.
“We are here today because Russia seeks to distract global attention from its development of a new satellite carrying a nuclear device,” deputy US Ambassador Robert Wood told the Security Council before the vote.
He also accused Russia of launching a satellite on Thursday into low Earth orbit that the US “assesses is likely a counterspace weapon presumably capable of attacking other satellites in low Earth orbit.”
“Russia deployed this new counterspace weapon into the same orbit as a US government satellite,” said Wood, adding that the May 16 launch followed Russian satellite launches “likely of counterspace systems to low Earth orbit” in 2019 and 2022.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia responded: “I didn’t even fully understand what he was talking about.”
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty already bars signatories – including Russia and the United States – from placing “in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction.”
Washington has accused Moscow of developing an anti-satellite nuclear weapon to put in space, an allegation that Russia has denied. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said Moscow was against putting nuclear weapons in space.
Nebenzia said the Russian draft resolution covered both weapons of mass destruction and all forms of other weapons and was aimed at stopping an arms race in outer space.
But, when pressed by Nebenzia, Wood took issue with language in the draft seeking “a lengthy binding mechanism that cannot be verified,” saying, “I’ve seen this movie before.”
The Russian draft had language echoing a 2008 proposal by Moscow and Beijing for a treaty banning “any weapons in outer space” and threats “or use of force against outer space objects,” but the diplomatic effort did not find international support.
What We Are Reading Today: ‘Crossing Thoughts’
Author: Sultan Ayaz
“Crossing Thoughts” is a fantasy novel in English by Saudi author Sultan Ayaz, published in 2017.
Ayaz’s novel is about humans defending their homeland against demon oppression. It is about the eternal fight between humanity and demons, and the person who stands between them.
The story begins with Drake, a child who lives a peaceful life with his family in a small town. However, a demonic attack destroys the village, but Drake somehow survives.
Three characters emerge: Aria, Ray and Amber, who study the nature of elements at the Grand College of Elements in the Kingdom of Iora, one of three kingdoms suffering demonic oppression. They learn to employ elemental magic as a weapon against their demonic opponents.
Aria (wind element user), Amber (fire element user) and Ray (thunder element user) end up fighting a sea demon and are discovered by a mysterious man called Soul, who admires their powers and helps them train to become “demon slayers,” to free humans from oppression.
There are many fight scenes in the storyline using magic and elements, and the book is full of drama, plot twists and terror.
What I liked about the narrative is how easy it is to read and follow, and the development of the world building —from the village to the Kingdom of Iora.
The female characters in the novel shine brighter and have distinct styles, making them more intriguing to read about, and each possesses a particular power.
It might be confusing for some readers that the story begins with Drake’s perspective and then cuts to the story of Aria, Amber and Ray. However, the more you read, the more intriguing the female storylines become.
The book has received four-plus star ratings on the Goodreads website and is simple enough to read in one sitting.
In 2020, Ayaz became one of the first Saudi novelists to have a fiction work in English published overseas when Olympia Publishers, a British publishing house, purchased the rights to “Crossing Thoughts.”
The novel is also set to be adapted into a Manga comic by Manga Arabia.
What We Are Reading Today: When the Bombs Stopped
Author: Erin Lin
Over the course of the Vietnam War, the United states dropped 500,000 tonnes of bombs over Cambodia—more than the combined weight of every man, woman, and child in the country.
Fifty years after the last sortie, residents of rural Cambodia are still coping with the unexploded ordnance that covers their land.
