Afghanistan and Iraq, accusing these countries of having no control over their borders.
Deputy Commander of the Border Police Gen. Ahmad Geravand was speaking Monday at a triumphal press conference after his troops killed six members of a smuggling gang during an attack on a border police station in Mirjaveh, a town on the Pakistani border.
“If they take some responsibility in this respect [border control], it will be easier for us to carry out our own duties,” he was quoted as saying by Press TV.
“The control over our common borders is getting better by the year,” he said, adding that his troops have arrested and killed more smugglers this year than last year, all the while suffering fewer casualties.
The government says more than 3,700 Iranian troops have been killed and “tens of thousands” have been injured in anti-smuggling operations in the past three decades, mostly along Iran’s borders with Afghanistan and Pakistan.
In addition to counter-narcotics operations, occasional border disputes between Iran and its neighbors and an easy resort to arms also contribute to those casualties.
For example, an Iranian border guard was shot dead by Azerbaijani officials Oct. 20 as he strayed into Azerbaijan by about 1,200 meters, according to Azerbaijani press reports.
The soldier, Akbar Hasanpur, died of his injuries in a hospital. The Fars news agency asserted that Hasanpur was unarmed and was detained first, then subsequently shot.
His killing prompted strong protests from Iranian authorities, who said the act was a violation of international norms and neighborly relations.
Iranian border police had two exchanges of fire with their Afghan counterparts last month and earlier this month. According to Afghan press reports, one Afghan civilian was slightly injured in the second exchange that involved rocket fire and lasted several hours.
The Afghan press also reported that both exchanges started when Iranian border guards attempted to establish a checkpoint inside Afghan territory.
But the Iranian embassy in Kabul strongly rejected these reports as exaggeration, stressing that the guards on both sides resolved the dispute soon after it happened.
“Unfortunately, we are occasionally witnessing negative, biased and untruthful news fabrication by a number of Afghan media against the Islamic Republic of Iran, which will apparently stir tension in the two countries’ friendly and good ties unintentionally,” the embassy said in a statement.
The spat with Afghan border police came only a few days after Iran closed its border with Pakistan following an attack by a Pakistani terrorist organization on a group of Pakistani Shiite pilgrims on their way to visit holy sites in Iran.
Between mid-July and early October, Iranian troops engaged in a large-scale operation along Iran’s border with Iraqi Kurdistan against PJAK, a Kurdish rebel group based in Iraq that launches regular attacks in Iran.
After more than two months of continued operations that involved casualties on both sides, Iran announced victory early October.
“We have complete control of the border areas,” said a senior Pasdar official triumphantly at the end of the operations.