ISLAMABAD — (AP) — Iran's foreign minister held talks with top Pakistani officials on Monday to try and mediate in the escalation between Islamabad and New Delhi after last month's deadly attack on tourists in the Indian-controlled part of Kashmir, as the United Nations urged both sides to exercise restraint.
Abbas Araghchi's visit to Islamabad was the first by a foreign dignitary since tensions flared in the wake of the April 22 massacre of 26 people, most of them Indian Hindu tourists, in the town of Pahalgam, which India blames on Pakistan. Islamabad denies the accusation.
Tehran has offered to help ease tensions between the nuclear-armed neighbors.
Araghchi held separate meetings with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who thanked him for his peace efforts, according to government statements. Araghchi will visit India this week, according to Pakistani state-run media.
Antonio Guterres, the U.N. Secretary General, also urged both sides later Monday to exercise restraint: “Make no mistake: A military solution is no solution,” he told reporters.
"Now is the time for maximum restraint and stepping back from the brink,” Guterres said. “The United Nations stands ready to support any initiative that promotes de-escalation, diplomacy, and a renewed commitment to peace.”
Islamabad has offered to cooperate with an international investigation. India hasn’t accepted the offer so far, and several world leaders have urged both sides to show restraint and avoid further escalation.
Pakistan's military has been on high alert after Cabinet Minister Attaullah Tarar cited intelligence indicating that India could attack.
Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in televised remarks Monday that Pakistan “will exercise full restraint, but if India takes any adventurous step, then we will give a befitting response.”
According to a ministry statement, Dar, in talks with Araghchi, rejected what he described as India’s attempts to implicate Pakistan in the Kashmir attack.
Dar had earlier welcomed mediation to defuse the tensions with India. Since last week, he said that he's spoken to more than a dozen foreign dignitaries, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“We will not be the first to take any escalatory step,” Dar said, adding that he had warned the international community should there be “any act of aggression by India, Pakistan will resolutely defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
He also accused the Indian air force of attempting to breach Pakistani airspace on April 29. Pakistan scrambled aircraft and forced Indian jets to turn back, he said. There was no immediate comment from India on those claims.
Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar led Monday a group of journalists to the mountain village of Bella Noor Shah, near Muzaffarabad — the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir — where he said that New Delhi had falsely claimed the presence of a militant training camp.
Residents of the village told reporters they had never seen any such camp in the area.
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal wrote on X that Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday and “strongly condemned the terror attack in Pahalgam."
Pakistan’s military said Monday that it test fired a short-range missile, the second such test launch after a medium-range missile on Saturday.
The military said that the Fatah surface-to-surface missile has a range of 120 kilometers (75 miles) and was launched from an undisclosed location. Such missiles are never fired toward India, and usually end up reaching the Arabian Sea or the deserts of southern Balochistan province
Kashmir is split between India and Pakistan and claimed by both in its entirety. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the Himalayan region and their ties have been shaped by conflict, aggressive diplomacy and mutual suspicion, mostly because of their competing claims over Kashmir.
Militants in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
Mushaal Hussein, the wife of a top Kashmiri rebel leader, Mohammed Yasin Malik, accused India of falsely implicating Pakistan in the attack on tourists. She made her remarks Monday after attending a flag-lowering ceremony, a dramatic daily show of strength on both sides of the border. Malik, who is imprisoned in India on terror charges, married her in Pakistan in 2009.
The latest flare-up led the two countries to expel each other's diplomats and nationals, as well as the shuttering of airspace.
Dar, Pakistan's foreign minister, denounced India's unilateral decision to suspend a water-sharing treaty.
In the town of Akhnoor in Indian-controlled Kashmir, where the Chenab River flows into Pakistan, residents said that water levels were so low, people could walk across the river on Monday.
“I have never seen this river dry in my life,” said 55-year-old farmer Bal Krishan, adding that he agreed with “Modi’s decision to suspend the treaty and punish” Pakistan.
There was no immediate comment from officials.
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Muhammad Yousaf reported from Muzaffarabad. Farnoush Amiri at the United Nations, Rajesh Roy in New Delhi, Channi Anand in Akhnoor, India, and Ishfaq Hussain in Muzaffarabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.
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