(Bloomberg) -- Pakistan and Iran’s officials expressed resolve to ease tensions, a day after retaliatory military strikes by Islamabad escalated tensions with Tehran.

“We have repeatedly said Iran is a friend,” Pakistani foreign ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said by phone on Friday. “We do not want an escalation and we also got similar kind of sentiments from their side. So we are taking it further.”

Pakistan’s additional foreign secretary Rahim Hayat Qureshi also exchanged messages on X with his Iranian counterpart Seyed Rasoul Mousavi in a sign that the two sides intend settle issues through dialogue, according to the post shared by Baloch on X.

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