Iran's foreign minister to visit Pakistan next week, Islamabad says

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan said on Monday Iran's foreign minister will visit the country next week, signaling efforts to rebuild ties after the neighbours exchanged missile strikes last week at what they said were militant targets.

Ambassadors of both countries have also been asked to return to their posts by Jan. 26, the Pakistan foreign ministry said in a statement.

Pakistan had recalled its ambassador to Tehran and had not allowed his counterpart to return to Islamabad, as well as cancelling all high-level diplomatic and trade engagements.

"At the invitation of Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani, Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Hossein Amir Abdollahian, will undertake a visit to Pakistan on 29 January 2024," a Pakistan foreign office statement said.

The tit-for-tat strikes by the two countries were the highest-profile cross-border intrusions in recent years and have raised alarm about wider instability in the region since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted on Oct. 7.

Islamabad said it hit bases of the separatist Baloch Liberation Front and Baloch Liberation Army, while Tehran said its missiles struck militants from the Jaish al Adl (JAA) group.

The militant groups operate in an area that includes Pakistan's southwestern province of Balochistan and Iran's southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province. Both are restive, mineral-rich and largely underdeveloped.

(Reporting by Gibran Peshimam; Writing by Shivam Patel and Asif Shahzad; Editing by YP Rajesh and Ros Russell)

By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam