Pakistan denies Israeli media claim of missile deal with Iran after Hamas leader’s killing

Police officers stand guard at the main entry gate of Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in Islamabad on January 18, 2024. (AP/File)

• The Jerusalem Post said Pakistan planned to supply ballistic missiles to Iran amid regional tensions
• Pakistan, which urged OIC states to avoid ‘wider war’ this week, calls the media report ‘patently false’

ISLAMABAD: The foreign office on Friday denied a report emerging in the Israeli press that claimed Pakistan had agreed to supply its nuclear-capable, surface-to-surface ballistic missile to Iran following the assassination of Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last month, calling it “patently false.”
The report, quoting unnamed sources, appeared in The Jerusalem Post and was later picked up by the Tehran Times, saying that Pakistan was planning to send its medium-range Shaheen-III missile to Iran amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Israel.
The story surfaced only days after the Hamas leader was targeted in Tehran, where he had gone to attend the inauguration of the new Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian.
While no one claimed responsibility for the attack, the Iranian administration pointed a finger at Israel and pledged to avenge the killing.
“Such reports are patently false,” the foreign office spokesperson, Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, said during her weekly media briefing. “Before paying any attention to such reports, it is important to reflect on the source behind such baseless reports and the malicious agenda behind them.”
“This is a critical time in the Middle East,” she added. “We, therefore, urge all parties, including the media, not to indulge in peddling of fake news.”
Earlier this week, Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar participation in the Extraordinary Meeting of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s Executive Committee in Jeddah, convened at the request of the State of Palestine and Iran to discuss Israel’s war in the Gaza Strip.
He cautioned Iran and Palestine against fulfilling what he described as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s designs for a “wider war” in the Middle East in avenging Haniyeh’s assassination.
Nearly 40,000 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli military campaign in Gaza since its beginning in October last year.
Israel has also targeted leaders of Hezbollah in Lebanon, creating concerns about further military escalation in the region.