Pakistan 'sends back' its envoy to Iran

Pakistan on Friday sent back its envoy Muhammad Mudassir Tipu to Iran to resume his duties in Tehran, ARY News reported, citing diplomatic sources.

Both Islamabad and Tehran witnessed a diplomatic row triggered by an exchange of missile attacks on each other’s territories, earlier this month.

Tipu, who reached Islamabad from Tehran on January 17, reached Iran to resume his duties today. Meanwhile, Iranian envoy to Pakistan, Raza Ameeri will reach Pakistan tonight, the sources said.

Tensions between the two neighbors heightened when Iran claimed to have struck a “terrorist hideout” in the border town of Panjgur in southwestern Balochistan province on Jan. 17, prompting Islamabad to recall its ambassador from Tehran.

In less than 48 hours after Iranian airstrikes, Pakistani forces “targeted militants’ hideouts” in a village in Saravan city of Sistan-Baluchestan province.

Later Iranian state media said that the attack killed nine people, all of whom were “foreign nationals.”

On January 20, Pakistan and Iran agreed to restore diplomatic ties and send back ambassadors to their postings.

Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amirabdollahian in a telephonic conversation discussed the return of the ambassadors back to their postings in their respective capitals.

Iranian FM is also expected to arrive in Pakistan on January 29 at the invitation of his counterpart Jalil Abbas Jilani.