Pakistan’s top military and civilian leaders are to conduct a national security review over the standoff with Iran after the neighbouring countries targeted each other with missile strikes that have raised fears of further instability across the region.
Caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar called the meeting on Friday, a day after the nuclear-armed nation launched strikes on the hideouts of armed groups in Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province, killing at least nine people.
Pakistan’s retaliatory action followed Iran’s air raids against the armed group Jaish al-Adl in Pakistan’s southwestern border province of Balochistan, in which two people died.
A security official said the chief of army staff and head of the intelligence services will attend the meeting, the AFP news agency reported.
Kakar cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland following the attack.
The tit-for-tat strikes have been the largest cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider instability in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on October 7.
However, both Pakistan and Iran have signalled a desire to calm tensions.
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