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Iran says border tensions with Taliban have been 'contained'

December 2, 2021 at 1:47 pm

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh in Tehran, Iran on 5 October 2020 [Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu Agency]

Iran’s Foreign Ministry yesterday said that clashes that had broken out between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard troops and Taliban fighters along the border were “contained”.

“A border dispute erupted between residents in Iran’s southern province of Sistan and the northern city of Nimroz, causing shooting along the border between the two sides,” the ministry’s spokesperson, Saeed Khatibzadeh, told reporters.

Khatibzadeh added that the situation was “managed and contained in coordination between the border guards on both sides.”

Afghan Aamaj News reported that the clashes broke out using “heavy weapons along the Afghanistan-Iran border,” noting that the Taliban forces had managed to control some of the checkpoints of the Iranian border guards.

Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news agency pointed out that Iranian security forces and Taliban fighters clashed in a gun battle over a “misunderstanding related to a border wall on the joint border.”

“Iranian officials are holding meetings with the Taliban to discuss the matter,” the agency stressed.

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