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Iran summons Pakistan envoy to protest deadly suicide attack
 [Al Jazeera] Iran has lodged an official protest with Pakistain's ambassador to Tehran over the suicide kaboom in Sistan-Baluchestan province that killed 27 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members.Foreign Ministry front man Bahram Ghasemi said on Sunday that Iran "explicitly conveyed" to Pak Ambassador Rafat Masoud that Tehran expects Islamabad and its military "to make a serious and decisive action" against the Jaish al-Adl and its base inside its territory, Mehr news agency reported. Ghasemi also said that the foreign ministry asked Pakistain to take "immediate and necessary measures" to identify and arrest the attackers, who carried out Wednesday's bombing, which also left 13 Revolutionary Guard members injured. Masoud took over her post as Pakistain's first female ambassador to Iran in August. The diplomatic protest comes as Iran's parliament speaker Ali Larijani said in a strongly-worded statement that the Pak government should be held to account for the incident. "The Pak government should be accountable for this act involving the group orchestrating and conducting the operation from their territory," Larijani said during Sunday's session of parliament. Larijani said Pakistain "cannot act irresponsibly", adding that "such behaviour will severely damage the level of cooperation" between the neighbouring countries. Speaking at an event in Hormozgan province on Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani also repeated his earlier threat to avenge the attack, saying he "regrets" the "wrong policies" of Iran's neighbours, without mentioning Pakistain. On Saturday, Iran's deputy foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi held a last-minute meeting with Sushma Swaraj, the foreign minister of India, the regional rival of Pakistain, to discuss the attack in Sistan-Baluchestan and a similar incident in Indian-administered Kashmire that killed 42 paramilitary members. Both Jaish al-Adl and Jaish-e-Muhammad, which grabbed credit for the attack in Kashmire, are based in Pakistain. Iran shares an almost 1,000km border with Pakistain, and in recent years has borne the brunt of cross-border attacks carried out by Jaish al-Adl and other affiliated gangs. In response to Iran's demand, Pak Foreign Minister Shah  Mehmood WormtongueQureshi announced on Sunday that he will send a special delegation to Tehran to hold talks about the attack. Posted by: Fred 2019-02-18 |
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