A top Iranian official said Saturday that Iran will "defend its territory whatever may happen" in the event of any US "reprisals" for the September 11 terrorist bombings, as the Islamic republic sealed off its joint border with Afghanistan to prevent the influx of refugees.
"Whatever happens, we are determined to defend our territory and we will now allow any infringement of the borders of Iran," Hossein Zare-Sefat, deputy governor general of Khorassan, which borders Afghanistan, told the news agency IRNA.
"We predict that the probable floods of Afghan refugees would be flown toward Pakistan and joint borders between Afghanistan and southern Iran," he said.
The official, however, said that no threat has yet been believed to have been posed to Iran as, he added, the Taliban militia have been places in an alert status since the United States vowed to retaliate.
Iran has called on the security forces along the eastern border with Afghanistan to seal off 900-kilometer joint border to encounter the consequences of probable US retaliatory strikes against Afghanistan following the devastating attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon, which has entombed thousands feared dead.
In a statement faxed to IRNA, the interior ministry said military and police forces have been deployed along the eastern border to prevent the influx of would-be Afghan refugees into Iran in the aftermath of the probable US attacks – Albawaba.com
