ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Friday expressed “deep concern” over the recent developments in the Middle East after a US attack killed the top commander of Iran’s elite Al Quds force in Baghdad earlier in the day.
Major General Qassem Soleimani, a high-profile figure in his country who was thought to be the man behind Tehran’s military influence in the region, was killed in an attack authorized by US President Donald Trump just a few days after the American embassy in Iraq was targeted by pro-Iranian militiamen.
“Pakistan has viewed with deep concern the recent developments in the Middle East, which seriously threaten peace and stability in the region,” said the country’s foreign ministry in an official handout circulated on Friday
“Respect for sovereignty and territorial integrity are the fundamental principles of the UN Charter, which should be adhered to,” the statement continued. “It is also important to avoid unilateral actions and use of force.”
This is not the first time Pakistan has voiced its concern over the situation in the volatile region of Middle East which has witnessed a string of conflicts in the last few decades.
Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose administration has been striving for economic stability and growth, has noted previously that any military escalation in the region can have a profoundly negative impact on his country’s economy.
According to a Reuters report, however, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has claimed in television interviews that Soleimani was targeted to disrupt an “imminent attack” that would have endangered Americans in the Middle East.
It was “an intelligence based assessment,” he said, adding: “He [the Iranian general] was actively plotting in the region to take actions — a big action as he described it — that would have put dozens if not hundreds of American lives at risk. We know it was imminent.”

Pompeo also announced in a Twitter post that he called Pakistan’s army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, and discussed “US defensive action to kill Qassem Soleimani.”
“#Pakistan's Chief of Staff General Bajwa and I spoke today about U.S. defensive action to kill Qassem Soleimani. The #Iran regime’s actions in the region are destabilizing and our resolve in protecting American interests, personnel, facilities, and partners will not waver,” he wrote.
However, the foreign ministry in Islamabad cautioned “all parties” to “exercise maximum restraint, engage constructively to de-escalate the situation, and resolve issues through diplomatic means, in accordance with UN Charter and international law.”