ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani strongly condemned explosions in Iran that killed over 100 people and wounded scores of others on Wednesday, describing them as “inhuman terrorist attacks.”
Two explosions in Iran’s southeastern city of Kerman killed over 100 and injured dozens of others. The blasts took place near the tomb of former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Qassem Soleimani. A large crowd had gathered at a ceremony held to mark four years since his assassination.
“Pakistan strongly condemns the inhuman terrorist attacks in Kerman, that claimed several innocent lives,” Jilani wrote on social media platform X.
“Our heart goes out to families of victims. Pakistan stands in solidarity with Iran at this hour of grief.”
As chief commander of the elite Quds force, the overseas arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Soleimani ran clandestine operations in foreign countries and was a key figure in Iran’s long-standing campaign to drive US forces out of the Middle East.
Tensions between Iran and Israel, along with its ally the United States, have reached a new high over Israel’s war on Iranian-backed Hamas militants in Gaza in retaliation for their Oct. 7 rampage through southern Israel.
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi militia have attacked ships they say have links to Israel at the entrance to the Red Sea, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
US forces have come under attack by Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria over Washington’s backing of Israel and have carried out their retaliatory air strikes.
On Monday an Israeli air strike killed a senior commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in Syria.
Iran has in the past blamed Israel for attacks on individual people or places within its borders — claims which Israel has neither confirmed nor denied — but there was no indication of any involvement of a foreign state in the explosions at Wednesday’s ceremony.
