A Law-enforcement officer has criticized Iran’s decision to cut the security budget for the country’s eastern borders.
A senior official, Javad Hamed, commander of the Law-Enforcement Agency in the Khorasan Province, was quoted in Persian on an Iran website as saying this week “I warn (the government) that if the security budget for the country’s eastern borders were to be reduced, there would be no guarantee that … the security situation of the border regions (would remain unchanged). He added that “at a time when the border strip and the country’s eastern regions are infected with insecurity, it seems irrational (for the Majlis Coordination Committee ) to cut the 200b rial (security) budget.
The border in question runs in a north-south direction and separates Iran’s largest province from its eastern neighbors, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan. The province, whose strategic capital city Mashhad (Meshed) is 900 kilometers from Iran, lies on the ancient Silk Road and remains to this day a center for Central Asian commerce. The city lies at the intersection of the railway links that connect China to Europe and link Central Asia with the Gulf and Oman Sea.
The modern political boundaries of eastern Iran were established in the 19th century during the reign of the Qajars. The region is a natural fortress in Central Asia that has always occupied a strategic position as a corridor between the steppes and the civilized, more populated areas of the Near East. The city also has great religious significance as a holy city for Shi’ite Muslims.
The Iranian News Agency (IRNA) sees the cuts in the government’s expenditure as part of both President Mohammed Khatami’s attempt to balance the country’s budget, and Iran’s financial restructuring in the run up to its bid for Word Trade Organization (WTU) membership.
The “infection of insecurity” to which Commander Hamed refers can only become more contagious after the United Nations imposed an arms embargo and other sanctions on the Taliban in mid January in an attempt to pressurize them to hand over suspected militant Osama bin Laden, a Saudi multimillionaire living in Afghanistan who tops the wanted list in the US. The Taliban, Afghanistan’s hard-line Islamic rulers say that there is no evidence that bin Laden is a terrorist. The United States, however, accuse him of masterminding the twin bombings of the US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya in 1998. He is also the leading suspect in last year's bombing of the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen. Even before the imposition of sanctions, tension along the border has been high and the Iranian embassy in Kabel has been empty for several years. According an Associated Press release, a bomb exploded near a United Nations building and the defunct Iranian Embassy in central Kabul on Monday.
The Taliban accuse Iran of supplying money and weapons to their opponents, who include many of the country's minority ethnic and religious groups, including Shiite Muslims.
In common with the majority of world governments, the Iranians now face the problem of balancing the conflicting financial demands of security and thrift.
They are also very conscious of the fact that Khorasan ( a Farsi word meaning the place where the sun rises ) is also the place where international and civil unrest are likely to arise - Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
