Pakistan’s Lahore has put in place extraordinary layers of security measures to protect a plane carrying an Iranian delegation heading to Islamabad for high-stakes peace talks with the United States, an aviation official said on Saturday.
The measures included a Pakistan Airlines plane flying alongside an Iranian plane whose transponder was switched off.
A high-level Iranian delegation led by Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf and Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Islamabad in the early hours of Saturday for the Islamabad talks.
Pakistan aviation officials told the Press Trust of India that the Pakistan Air Force has taken extraordinary security measures to respond and deal with any incident in the air involving the Iranian delegation’s plane.
He said that the plane carrying the Iranian delegation took off from Gorgan Airport on the coast of the Caspian Sea, about 400 kilometers from Tehran.
He said: “Pakistani air traffic controllers were informed in advance that the aircraft’s transponder would remain switched off. With the transponder switched off, the aircraft would not be detectable by secondary radar systems used to monitor commercial flights. However, it could still be tracked by primary military radar, albeit without basic identification information, only in the form of moving dots.”
One of the key protective measures, he said, was that a Pakistan Airlines plane flew alongside the Iranian plane and had its transponder turned on.
He said: “The global radar system tracked the Pakistani Airbus A321 on this route, while the Iranian Airbus A300 cautiously flew with it with the transponder turned off. After escorting the Iranian aircraft to Nur Khan Air Base, the Pakistani aircraft returned to Islamabad Airport.”
The official said the arrangement was an “air maneuver deception” tactic.
In addition, the Pakistan Air Force has also taken further security measures. The Iranian aircraft flew over Afghanistan for a long time and entered Pakistani airspace via Chaman.
“Throughout the journey, from the conflict zones in the Gulf to Afghanistan and on to Islamabad, a robust air surveillance and protection system, including early warning aircraft and fighter jets, remained active,” he said.
A U.S. and Iranian delegation, led by Vice President Vance, are engaged in high-stakes peace talks in Pakistan, four days after the warring sides announced a two-week ceasefire after nearly five weeks of hostilities.
This article was generated from automated news agency feeds without modifications to the text.
