MOSCOW: The Taliban’s (under UN sanctions for terrorism) forces clashed on Saturday with Iranian border guards on the border between the Islamic Republic and Afghanistan, reported Sputnik quoting Afghan media.
Tolo News cited local sources in the Nimruz province, in southwestern Afghanistan, as saying that Iranian border guards were blocking the border crossing to the eastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan.
Taliban security forces neither confirmed nor denied the media reports, Tolo News said.
Border clashes between Taliban militants and Iranian border guards were last reported in the area in March. Taliban officials put the fighting down to a misunderstanding.
Iran does not recognize the Taliban-led government and has been calling for an inclusive Afghan government to take over. It has an envoy, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, posted to Kabul to negotiate pressing issues.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s top foreign policy official, has recently met with the Iranian envoy in Kabul to discuss coordinated management of the Iranian-Afghan border, his spokesperson Hafiz Zia Ahmad said on social media.-Bernama
