Al-Qaeda terrorists committed crimes in Iran, president
IRNA
Putrajaya, Malaysia, Oct 17, IRNA -- President Mohammad Khatami said on Friday that Iran has never sheltered members of al-Qaeda on its territory and will never do so. He remarked however in a press conference in Malaysia that the long and porous eastern borders of Iran allow certain illegal traffics. Responding to a question on the illegal infiltration of al-Qaeda members, he said that sometimes they attacked the border guards with firearms and in one case two arms of a policeman have been cut as a esult of wounds he received in gun battle. he added that some of these people have been arrested and dozens of them have been repatriated while some others are to be deported pending identification of their nationalities. Khatami also said that, "When the United States was organizing the Taliban to stand against the former Soviet Union, Iran had ideological ifferences with them. They have a hostile attitude toward Iran which culminated in assassination of eight Iranian diplomats and IRNA reporter (in Mazar-i-Sharif in August 1998)." On drug trafficking along eastern borders, he said that over 3,000 ranian policemen have been killed in gun battle with the armed people crossing borders between Iran and Afghanistan for trafficking drugs to Europe. "I`ve already told the European heads of states that our police force are being martyred to fight drug trafficking to Europe from Afghanistan to save the European youth from addiction," he said. SS/211 End
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