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IEA calls on Pakistan and Iran to ‘exercise restraint’
The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) has called on both Pakistan and Iran to exercise restraint after both countries carried out strikes on each other.
In a statement issued by the foreign ministry on Thursday, the IEA said the action taken this week by Pakistan and Iran “was worrying”.
“Since the region is taking a breath of security and stability after long forced wars and instability, both sides need to make efforts to strengthen the regional stability and discuss controversial issues through diplomatic channels,” the IEA stated.
This came after Pakistan conducted strikes inside Iran on Thursday, targeting separatist militants. Two days ago, Tehran said it attacked Israel-linked militant bases inside Pakistani territory.
On Thursday, Iranian media said several missiles hit a village in the Sistan-Baluchistan province that borders Pakistan, killing three women and four children, all non-Iranians.
“A number of terrorists were killed during the intelligence-based operation,” the Pakistani ministry said in a statement, describing it as a “series of highly coordinated and specifically targeted precision military strikes against terrorist hideouts”.
It added, “Pakistan fully respects the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
“The sole objective of today’s act was in pursuit of Pakistan’s own security and national interest, which is paramount and cannot be compromised.”
A Pakistani intelligence source told Reuters the strikes were carried out by military aircraft.
“Our forces have conducted strikes to target Baloch militants inside Iran,” the intelligence official in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, said.
“The targeted militants belong to BLF,” he added, referring to the Balochistan Liberation Front, which seeks independence for Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
Iran said on Tuesday it had targeted Israel-linked militant bases inside Pakistan. Pakistan said civilians had been hit and two children killed, warning of consequences for which Tehran would be responsible.
Islamabad recalled its ambassador from Iran on Wednesday, Reuters reported.
Pakistan and Iran have in the past had rocky relations, but the strikes are the highest-profile cross-border intrusion in recent years.
Pakistan recalls envoy from Iran after ‘unprovoked’ missile strikes
Iran’s foreign minister said it hit militants in “missile and drone” strikes. State media said Iranian missiles struck two bases of the Sunni Muslim group Jaish al-Adl, designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the U.S. State Department.
Nuclear-armed Pakistan said a violation of its airspace resulted in the deaths of two children but has not confirmed the nature of the violation, or the location of the strikes.
Only militants were hit, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian said in Davos, Switzerland, where he was attending the World Economic Forum, alleging those attacked were linked to Israel, read the report.
Pakistan and Iran have in the past had rocky relations, but the strikes are the highest-profile cross-border intrusion in recent years.
The strikes were launched a day after similar attacks carried out by Tehran inside other neighbours, Iraq and Syria. Baghdad recalled its ambassador from Tehran after Iran’s state-backed media said it had hit an Israeli espionage centre.
Provincial officials in Pakistan said two children were killed and several others injured in strikes near the Iran border.
The violation was unprovoked and unacceptable, said Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch. Pakistan reserved “the right to respond to this illegal act”, a message it had conveyed to the Iranian government, she said.
Pakistan would not allow Iran’s ambassador, currently visiting his home country, to return, Baloch said.
The Embassy of Japan in Afghanistan announced on Friday that the country has allocated $19.5 million in humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.
In a statement, the Japanese Embassy said it hopes the aid will help bring positive change to the lives of vulnerable Afghans.
According to the statement, the assistance will cover the basic humanitarian needs of vulnerable communities in Afghanistan.
The embassy added that the aid will be delivered through United Nations agencies, international organizations, and Japanese non-governmental organizations operating in Afghanistan.
Japan’s total assistance to Afghanistan since August 2021 has reached more than $549 million.
Security forces at the Islam Qala border in Herat province prevented hundreds of young Afghans from illegally entering Iran.
Officials from the 207 Al-Farooq Army Corps said that around 530 people attempted over the past two days to illegally enter Iranian territory through areas of Kohsan district in Herat, but border forces detained them and transferred them back to their original areas.
Meanwhile, officials in the local administration of Herat said that due to severe cold along the illegal migration route to Iran, three Afghan migrants have lost their lives in the Kohsan district of the province, and a shepherd has also died there for the same reason.
Mohammad Yousuf Saeedi, spokesperson for the Herat governor’s office, said that some statistics and images shared on social media regarding the incident are not reliable.
According to him, further investigations are underway to determine whether any individuals have died on the other side of the border.
President Donald Trump suspended the green card lottery program on Thursday that allowed the suspect in the Brown University and MIT shootings to come to the United States.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in a post on the social platform X that, at Trump’s direction, she is ordering the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services to pause the program, the Associated Press reported.
“This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country,” she said of the suspect, Portuguese national Claudio Neves Valente.
Neves Valente, 48, is suspected in the shootings at Brown University that killed two students and wounded nine others, and the killing of an MIT professor. He was found dead Thursday evening from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, officials said.
Neves Valente had studied at Brown on a student visa beginning in 2000, according to an affidavit from a Providence police detective. In 2017, he was issued a diversity immigrant visa and months later obtained legal permanent residence status, according to the affidavit. It was not immediately clear where he was between taking a leave of absence from the school in 2001 and getting the visa in 2017.
The diversity visa program makes up to 50,000 green cards available each year by lottery to people from countries that are little represented in the U.S., many of them in Africa. The lottery was created by Congress, and the move is almost certain to invite legal challenges.
Nearly 20 million people applied for the 2025 visa lottery, with more than 131,000 selected when including spouses with the winners. After winning, they must undergo vetting to win admission to the United States. Portuguese citizens won only 38 slots.
Lottery winners are invited to apply for a green card. They are interviewed at consulates and subject to the same requirements and vetting as other green-card applicants.
Trump has long opposed the diversity visa lottery. Noem’s announcement is the latest example of using tragedy to advance immigration policy goals. After an Afghan man was identified as the gunman in a fatal attack on National Guard members in November, Trump’s administration imposed sweeping rules against immigration from Afghanistan and other counties.
While pursuing mass deportation, Trump has sought to limit or eliminate avenues to legal immigration. He has not been deterred if they are enshrined in law, like the diversity visa lottery, or the Constitution, as with a right to citizenship for anyone born on U.S. soil. The Supreme Court recently agreed to hear his challenge to birthright citizenship.
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