No intent to escalate but would respond firmly to any military attack by Pakistan: EAM Jaishankar tells Iran FM

New Delhi: Even as Tehran advised New Delhi and Islamabad to exercise restraint, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar told his Iranian counterpart Seyed Abbas Araghchi on Thursday that India had no intent to escalate but would respond firmly to any military attack by Pakistan.

Jaishankar also had a meeting with Adel al-Jubeir, the minister of state for foreign affairs of Saudi Arabia, who reached New Delhi amid heightened tension between India and Pakistan. He shared with the Saudi Arabian minister India’s perspective on firmly countering terrorism.

Ever since a gang of Pakistani and Pakistan-trained terrorists killed 26 people, mostly tourists, at Baisaran near Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22, tension between New Delhi and Islamabad escalated. A fortnight later, India launched Operation Sindoor early on Wednesday, with its armed forces carrying out missile strikes, targeting the terrorist camps, both in Pakistan as well as in parts of Kashmir under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

“Excellency, you are visiting India at a time when we are responding to a particularly barbaric terrorist attack on April 22 in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. This attack compelled us to respond on May 7 by striking at cross-border terrorist infrastructure,” Jaishankar told Araghchi at the beginning of the India-Iran joint commission meeting in New Delhi on Thursday.

 “Our response was targeted and measured. It is not our intention to escalate this situation. However, if there are military attacks on us, there should be no doubt that it will be met with a very very firm response,” he told the foreign minister of Iran. “As a neighbour and close partner, it is important that you have a good understanding of this situation.”

Shortly after arriving in New Delhi late on Wednesday, Araghchi urged India and Pakistan to exercise restraint to avoid further escalation. He had visited Islamabad earlier this week and had called on Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, apart from meeting with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar as well as Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian last month called the prime ministers of India and Pakistan, Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, and called for de-escalation in an attempt to diffuse tension between the two South Asian nations.

“A good meeting with @AdelAljubeir, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Saudi Arabia, this morning. Shared India’s perspectives on firmly countering terrorism,” Jaishankar posted on X after his meeting with the minister from Riyadh.