Iran stepped up political and military pressure on the Taliban Islamic militia controlling Afghanistan yesterday, but newspapers in Tehran warned against intervention in its neighbour.
The Revolutionary Guards commander, Gen Rahim Safavi, said his forces would remain near the Afghan border even after the end of three days of military exercises.
More than 70,000 Revolutionary Guards and volunteers on Tuesday began their largest ever exercises in north-eastern Iran amid mounting tension with the Taliban. "The troops and equipment taking part in the Ashura-3 manoeuvres in the north-east of the country will not be withdrawn," said Gen Safavi.
The general's comments came a day after the foreign ministry warned the Taliban to free a journalist and 10 diplomats it has allegedly seized in Afghanistan "or face a harsh response" from Iran.
"The Taliban and its backers are the main reason behind the great manoeuvre," a foreign ministry spokesman, Mr Mahmud Mohammadi, said. "If the Taliban choose not to play it straight on the fate of the diplomats, they will face a severe response from us. This manoeuvre is aimed at those who disregard international norms and seek to damage our national interests and security."
Iran has also called on the UN to send an international mission to look into the fate of the diplomats, who were allegedly seized by the militia after its takeover on August 8th of Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan previously controlled by Iranian-backed Afghan opposition forces.
A foreign ministry official, Mr Mohsen Aminzadeh, said Tehran wants representatives of the UN and the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as Iran and Pakistan, to go to Afghanistan.
Although Tehran has officially limited its demands to the release of the diplomats, it realises there is more at stake if the extremist Sunni Muslim Taliban militia continues to rule over Afghanistan, where Shia Iran has traditionally commanded great cultural and political influence.
The militia controls three provinces bordering Iran, which used to be a hub of commercial activity between the two countries.
"The presence of Taliban in Herat, Farah and Nimruz could turn the three provinces into a hot-bed of chaos and insecurity," said Qods newspaper, which is based in Khorasan province bordering Pakistan.
"The militia could band together small groups of saboteurs and send them across the border for terrorist activities. Or they could send off drug caravans into Iran or allow Iranian anti-revolutionaries to use Afghanistan as a base for aggression against Iran."
The daily, Jomhuri Islami, went further and warned Iran's other eastern neighbour, Pakistan, as well as Saudi Arabia and the US, countries which Iran has accused of inventing the militia to counter Iran's influence in the region.
"The manoeuvre is also a clear warning to conspirators who have entered action in the name of the Taliban, but that their ugly faces are evident behind the mask," it said.
Other newspapers sounded more cautious notes. "Iran should not get militarily involved in Afghanistan because the United States is waiting for such an opportunity," said Kayhan Havaii weekly.
Qods warned against military intervention for different reasons. "The militiamen are strenuous fighters with strong discipline. They fight like they have nothing to lose. Moreover, the war-torn and famine-stricken Afghanistan has no appeal to the world and the Taliban will like nothing more than to draw a country like Iran into a conflict."