Iran Tuesday disclosed that it and Pakistan had foiled two suicide attacks on Iran 's territory by militants based in Pakistan.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif made the revelation during an official visit to Islamabad, saying the attacks had been planned for this past Monday.
Tehran has long alleged that anti-Iranian extremists use hideouts in the Pakistani border province of Balochistan for plotting terrorism against Iran. Jaish al-Adl, or the Army of Justice, has claimed responsibility for the majority of recent attacks on Iranian soil.
“Last night, unfortunately, we had two suicide [bombing] attempts from Pakistani territory into Iran. Both of them were foiled and we had excellent cooperation from the Pakistani armed forces in order to contain this,” noted Zarif, while speaking to a Pakistan private TV channel. He did not give further details or identify the attacks’ planners.
Last year, militants ambushed and killed 10 Iranian border guards and allegedly took another back to hideouts in the sparsely populated Pakistani province of Baluchistan. The incident fuelled bilateral tensions and Iranian authorities threatened to conduct cross-border raids to rescue the hostage and punish the assailants if Islamabad failed to do so.
Zarif said the Iranian border guard taken hostage has not been freed and that, “We hope that our Pakistani friends help us return him.” Since then, the Iranian minister said, there has been “excellent cooperation” between the two countries and Monday’s incident “was an indication.”
The “presence of Daesh in this region is a threat to all of us. Unfortunately, Daesh was defeated territorially in Iraq but the ideology was not defeated, the network was not defeated,” Zarif said Monday, while delivering a public talk in Islamabad.