ISLAMABAD, Jan  19, 2024 (BSS/AFP) - Pakistan and Iran "agreed to
de-escalate" tensions Friday, Islamabad said, after trading deadly airstrikes
on militant targets in each other's territory this week.

The rare military actions in the porous border region of Baluchistan --
split between the two nations -- had stoked regional tensions already enflamed
by the Israel-Hamas war.

Iran carried out a missile and drone attack on what it called "terrorist"
targets in Pakistan on Tuesday night, with Pakistan in turn striking militant
targets inside Iran on Thursday.

Pakistan recalled its ambassador from Tehran and said Iran's envoy -- on a
visit home -- was blocked from returning to Islamabad.

The United Nations and the United States appealed for restraint, while
China offered to mediate.

But after speaking by phone, Pakistan's Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani
and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian agreed "close coordination
on counter terrorism and other aspects of mutual concern should be
strengthened".

"They also agreed to de-escalate the situation," according to a summary of
the conversation released by Islamabad's foreign ministry.

After the call, Amir-Abdollahian said in a statement "the cooperation of
the two countries to neutralise and destroy terrorist camps in Pakistan is
essential".

The muted rhetoric matched analysts' predictions that both sides would seek
to defuse the confrontation.

Tehran and Islamabad have both insisted they hit their own domestic
militants sheltering on foreign territory.

"The upshot of the new situation is that the two countries are seemingly
and symbolically even," said Antoine Levesques, of the International Institute
for Strategic Studies.

- Border closure fears -

Meanwhile on Friday, Pakistan Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar held an
emergency security meeting with military and intelligence chiefs.

"The forum reiterated the unflinching resolve that sovereignty and
territorial integrity of Pakistan are absolutely inviolable," said a summary
released by Kakar's office.

"Any attempt by anyone to breach it on any pretext will be responded with
[the] full might of the state."

But the summit also said Pakistan and Iran should "address each other's
security concerns in the larger interest of regional peace and stability".

Caretaker leader Kakar cut short his visit to the World Economic Forum in
Davos, Switzerland following the strikes, which came with national elections
due in three weeks.

A collective death toll of 11 -- mostly women and children -- was reported
from both sides of the border that bisects an arid region where militant
movements have simmered for decades.

In the remote villages near the strike site in Panjgur district, where
mobile signal is rarely available, farmers pieced together the events from
reports passed on from visiting security officials who set up checkpoints in
the area.

"Helicopters were flying overhead and going in the direction of where the
Iranian strike hit, but we didn't know what had happened," Maulana Mohammad
Sadiq, 42, the prayer leader of a small seminary around five kilometres (three
miles) from where a missile hit, told AFP on Thursday.

Villagers feared that deteriorating relations between the two sides could
lead to border closures and cut off residents from Iranian trade, which the
area relies on for employment and food imports.

"If Iranians close the border, the people will starve and it will cause
more militancy because youth will join the separatist organisations," said
55-year-old Haji Mohammad Islam.

Baluch separatists have been waging a low-level insurgency against
Pakistani authorities from the largely ungoverned, impoverished region fighting
for a better share of mineral resources.

Rights groups say the military's crackdown on the insurgency has included
widespread enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings.

Militancy has also risen sharply along Pakistan's border with Afghanistan
further north, after the Taliban's return to power there in 2021.