Iran's border forces and Afghanistan's Taliban ended clashes over a "border misunderstanding" near the Afghan province of Nimroz, Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency said on Wednesday.
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"The clashes ended and Iran is discussing the dispute over the border with the Taliban," Tasnim said, adding that reports over the capture of an Iranian border camp by the Taliban were false.
The Taliban's deputy spokesperson Bilal Karimi was quoted by Afghan television station Tolo News confirming the incident took place but declining to provide details.
#BREAKING Fierce clashes have erupted between Iranian border guards and Taliban forces along Iran-Afghanistan border.
Sources told @aamajnews24 several Iranian border posts have been captured by Taliban fighters pic.twitter.com/v88lhQWcXZ— Reza Khaasteh (@Khaaasteh) December 1, 2021
"He said the clashes had stopped and did not provide information about their cause," the station said in a tweet
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said a "border dispute between residents" in the area had triggered the incident, without referring to the Taliban.
"The situation has been resolved. Shooting stopped after contact between border guards of the two countries," he said in a statement.
Footage of one of the Iranian border posts captured by Taliban
via @aamajnews24 pic.twitter.com/Ey28CrG4WO
— Reza Khaasteh (@Khaaasteh) December 1, 2021
"Iranian farmers passed beyond the protective walls erected within Iran, and the Taliban reacted by deeming that their border had been breached," Tasnim reported.
Although the Iranian government has had generally good relations with the Taliban, there have been longstanding tensions along the 560-mile border, which has active smuggling routes and thousands of refugees crossing every day.
In late October, Tehran called on the Taliban to adopt a "friendly" approach towards their neighbors, in a meeting of six countries that share borders with Afghanistan.
In November, the Norwegian Refugee Council said as many as 4,000-5,000 Afghans were crossing into Iran daily since the Taliban seized Kabul in August and hundreds of thousands more were expected to arrive throughout the winter.
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The aid group said as many as 300,000 Afghans have crossed the border since the Taliban victory and it called for more international support for Iran, which is grappling with a deep economic crisis of its own.
"Iran cannot be expected to host so many Afghans with so little support from the international community," NRC Secretary General Jan Egeland said in a statement. "There must be an immediate scale up of aid both inside Afghanistan and in neighbouring countries like Iran, before the deadly winter cold."
Iran and Pakistan together house about 90% of the 5 million Afghans displaced outside their country, although not all of these are counted as refugees.
UN agencies say as many as 22.8 million people – more than half of Afghanistan's 39 million population – are facing acute food insecurity and compared to 14 million just two months ago.
i24NEWS contributed to this report.
