Pakistan says no request from Iran for 'military assistance'
Islamabad, Jun 19 (PTI): Pakistan on Thursday said it has received no request for any “military assistance” from Iran in the ongoing war against Israel while stressing that the Islamic Republic has the right to defend itself.
“Pakistan’s position on Iran is clear and transparent: We provide full moral support to Iran; we strongly condemn the aggression against Iran,” Foreign Office spokesperson Shafqat Ali Khan said at the weekly press briefing here.
Khan said no request has been received from Tehran to provide asylum to Iranian refugees in Pakistan, which borders the Islamic Republic. “Nor has Iran asked us for any kind of military assistance so far,” he added.
"Iran has the right to defend itself under the UN Charter," Khan said.
Khan stated that twenty-one Muslim countries rejected the Israeli aggression against Iran in a joint statement, calling the Israeli actions against international law and the UN Charter.
The spokesperson said that the situation in Iran was a cause for grave concerns for Pakistan and asked for ending the Israel attacks.
He also said that Pakistan supported a negotiated resolution to the Iran-Israel conflict.
Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar held telephonic contacts with the foreign ministers of Iran, Turkey, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom and highlighted that Israeli actions against Iran can have dangerous effects in the region and beyond, Khan added.
The spokesperson also stressed that targeting Iranian nuclear facilities was a violation of IAEA safeguards and other international laws.
He also said that the Pakistani Embassy in Tehran and the consulates in Mashhad and Zahedan were assisting in the evacuation of Pakistani nationals. He added that so far 3,000 Pakistanis have been brought back.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
