China calls for restraint after Iranian airstrikes hit terrorist bases in Pakistan

China has called on both Pakistan and Iran and urged them to exercise restraint and avoid actions that could escalate tensions. Two bases of Pakistan’s Baloch militant group Jaish al-Adl were targeted by missiles on Tuesday, Iranian state media reported, a day after Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards attacked targets in Iraq and Syria with missiles. Asked for her reaction to the Iranian airstrikes, which are perhaps for the first time by Tehran against Pakistan, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told a media briefing here that “Iran and Pakistan are close neighbours and major Islamic countries.” “We call on the two sides to exercise restraint, avoid actions that escalate the tension and jointly keep the region peaceful and stable,” she said. “Pakistan has decided to recall its ambassador from Iran and that the Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan who is currently visiting Iran may not return for the time being,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said while addressing a press briefing in Islamabad. China’s USD 60 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor connecting Pakistan’s volatile Balochistan, neighbouring Iran, with its Xinjiang province is increasingly coming under pressure from Baloch nationalists and Sunni extremist groups with repeated attacks on thousands of Chinese workers employed in scores of projects in Pakistan.