Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Aerospace Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, claimed that “enemies” of Iran want to transform the border clash with Taliban into a full-blown war. In a speech, he claimed that US created "various traps" to trick Iran into war.
This senior military commander called the clashes with Taliban border forces “worthless”.
Hajizadeh, in a speech at the University of Science and Technology of Tehran, said, “Our enemies want to transform the border clash with Afghanistan into a war; the case will be managed. Nothing to worry.”
He added, “Some incidents happened at the border that are not very important. They are managed in the area of the border and by the forces there, and we should not stir up these issues.”
Controversy over Iran’s water rights has raised political tension between the Taliban and Iranian government. The border clash between Iranian and Taliban border guards intensified the tensions. Now, the Iranian and Taliban officials are trying to lower the tensions through a conciliatory tone.
Though this Iranian official trivialised the border clash, but he claimed that the US is behind it.
He pointed to the death of nine Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif of Balkh province in 1998, which caused the gathering of tens of thousands of Iranian military forces on the border with Afghanistan and said that Ali Khamenei, the religious leader of Iran, prevented the clash with Taliban back then.
According to the Khabaronline website, Hajizadeh said, “US has prepared different traps for Iran over the years. For example, during the Iraq-Kuwait war... in Afghanistan, during the Bush, when our diplomats were martyred in Afghanistan, inside some tried to carry out an operation, which the leader of the revolution stopped and said that the war is not in our favour.”
Regarding the border clash, Tasnim Agency which is affiliated to IRGC, claimed that a security source said that the reason behind the starting of the clash had been the skirmish between Iranian border guards and drug traffickers.
This source said that Taliban were unaware of the matter and opened fire on Iranian forces which caused the clash between the two sides.
