ISLAMABAD (AP) — The highest navy management of Pakistan and neighboring Iran agreed to step up cooperation and intelligence sharing and take “efficient actions” to stop assaults by separatist militants alongside their porous border, Pakistani officers mentioned Monday.
The settlement was reached throughout a go to by Pakistan’s highly effective military chief Gen. Asim Munir to Tehran over the weekend, officers mentioned. Munir traveled to Tehran on a two-day go to following a surge in attacks within the nation’s southwestern Baluchistan province, which shares an extended border with Afghanistan and Iran.
Pakistan’s relations with Iran have witnessed ups and downs lately due to cross-border assaults by Pakistani militants. Small separatist teams have been behind a long-running insurgency calling for fuel and oil-rich Baluchistan’s independence from the central authorities in Islamabad.
Pakistani anti-Iran militants have additionally focused the Iranian border lately, rising friction between the nations.
In a press release, Pakistan’s navy mentioned that Munir met with the Iranian military’s chief of workers, Gen. Mohammad Hossein Bagheri, and referred to as on Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi.
It mentioned the edges agreed that terrorism was a typical menace. “They vowed to eradicate (the) menace of terrorism within the border areas by means of intelligence sharing and efficient actions towards the terrorists’ networks, and discover avenues for enhancing cooperation within the safety area,” the assertion mentioned.
The go to additionally comes as tensions have elevated between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers, who’ve been accused by Islamabad of sheltering a key outlawed militant group referred to as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, or TTP. The group has grow to be emboldened for the reason that Taliban seized energy in Afghanistan in 2021.