China offers mediation as tensions escalate between Pakistan, Iran

China Thursday shared the willingness to mediate between Pakistan and Iran in the wake of an exchange of attacks on militant targets inside their respective territories, which has resulted in casualties on both sides of the border.

The missile attack, initiated by Tehran "unprovoked" late Tuesday night, left two children dead and injured three girls. It also violated the country’s sovereignty, Pakistan's Foreign Office said in the statement. 

Meanwhile, in response to the strikes that Iran claimed targeted a militant organisation, Pakistan also launched an attack overnight resulting in the killing of several militant targets residing in the border region in Iran.

According to Tehran, the attack by Islamabad has claimed at least seven civilians.

During a press conference in Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said the Chinese side sincerely hopes that the two sides can exercise calm and restraint and avoid an escalation of tension.

"We are also willing to play a constructive role in de-escalating the situation if both sides so wish," she added.

Earlier today, the Chinese Consul General in Karachi Yang Yundong also iterated China's willingness to play a constructive role in settling differences between both nations.

“China would like to ask Pakistan and Iran that we will like to play a constructive role to settle the differences between the two countries,” Yundong said exclusively talking to Geo News.

To a question on Iran’s blatant breach of Pakistan’s sovereignty by launching a missile attack in Balochistan, he said Pakistan and Iran were the major countries in the region and Muslim world, so China hoped that the differences between them could be solved through talks and other peaceful ways.

Nuclear-armed Pakistan and neighbouring Iran are both battling simmering insurgencies along their sparsely populated border regions.

On January 17, Pakistan warned Iran of serious consequences after Tehran violated its airspace claiming the lives of two Pakistanis and injuring multiple others.

"Pakistan strongly condemns the unprovoked violation of its airspace by Iran which resulted in the death of two innocent children while injuring three girls," Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in a statement in the aftermath of the attack.