Iran, Afghanistan confer on Harirud incident in Kabul
According To Iran News, Afghanistan ministry of foreign affairs announced on Tuesday that an Iranian delegation, led by Iran’s deputy foreign minister Mohsen Baharvand, has hold talks with an Afghan delegation headed by Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar, in Kabul.
In this meeting, Atmar called for Iran’s full cooperation on joint investigations related to the Harirud incident, which led to the death of a number of Afghan migrants near the Iran-Afghanistan border in early May.
“The purpose of this research is to get the facts, to take legal action against the perpetrators, and to take the necessary measures to prevent such unfortunate incidents in the future, which may affect the relations between the two friendly and neighboring countries,” he said.
The Afghan official also expressed gratitude for the medical assistance of Iran to Afghanistan under the coronavirus pandemic.
The Iranian side, who was accompanied by foreign ministry Director-General for West-Asia Seyyed Rasoul Mousavi and the representative of Iranian border guards, for his part, voiced Iran’s commitment to conducting investigations over the incident.
Both sides underscored the vitality of preventing similar incidents in the future.
On May 1, some claims surfaced in media reports that Iranian border guards had tortured and thrown as many as 57 Afghans into the Hari River (Harirud) in western Herat province to prevent their illegal entry into Iran. The Khaama Press News Agency said at least 23 of them drowned in Harirud.
Tehran has roundly rejected the claims, saying the incident took place on the Afghan side of the border and Iranian forces had no role in the incident.
Iran has extensive evidence that the incident has not happened on its borders. According to Iran’s Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyyed Abbas Mousavi, the confirmed reports received from the border guards of the Islamic Republic of Iran show that such an incident has not occurred on the mentioned date and location. He noted that Iran has not been associated with Afghan migrants and the claims of transferring people to camps or inhumane treatment are completely baseless. He added that due to weather conditions of the region, not a single Afghan citizen entered the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran on that date.
