Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has issued a stern warning to the Taliban in Afghanistan, as the Tehran parliament debated measures to foil possible threats from the hardline Islamic militia.
Unconfirmed reports of mass killings and arrests are filtering out of northern Afghanistan, Amnesty International said yesterday.
Ayatollah Khamenei accused the United States of using the Taliban to plot against it and demanded the return of Iranian nationals reportedly seized by the militia when it took over a key opposition stronghold in Afghanistan 10 days ago.
He said on state radio: "A group of immature and ignorant people has committed the ugly act of arresting our people. This is not in their interest. They had better make up for this ugly act and return our diplomats with respect."
Tehran says the militia took 10 Iranian diplomats and a journalist hostage after its seizure on August 8th of Mazar-i-Sharif, a city in northern Afghanistan which had been the stronghold of the Iranian-backed anti-Taliban alliance. "The Iranian nation and government does not even tolerate acts of banditry by the US and least of all by these worthless and lowly people," Khamenei said.
But the Taliban, while confirming the arrest of 35 Iranian truck drivers in Afghanistan, has denied holding the other 11 nationals. The Taliban called yesterday on Iran to review what it called a "totally wrong policy" on the Afghan conflict.
The Iranian leader said the Taliban, whose Sunni brand of Islamic fundamentalism is a rival to Iran's Shia variety, was invented by Iran's arch-enemy, the United States. He accused the US of seeking to create tension along Iran's eastern border.
He said the Taliban, "which has no understanding of Islam or politics has been tearing away at Afghanistan, but it will not be able to finish its task".
Meanwhile, the Iranian parliament held a closed-door session to discuss the developments in Afghanistan and Iran's "national security concerns". Iranian revolutionary guards have already increased security along the 600mile border.
Iran has shunned the Taliban since it emerged four years ago from Koranic schools in refugee camps in Pakistan, branding it a "puppet" of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the US formed to counter Iranian influence in the region.
Tehran also accuses the militia of giving a bad name to Islam through its repressive policies, especially towards women, and of aiding drug-trafficking to Europe via Iran.
Amnesty said it had received "unconfirmed but persistent reports" of mass arrests of members of the non-Pushtoon ethnic groups in Balkh province and their transfer to secret locations. "There have also been reports of mass killing of non-combatant members of the Hazara population in Mazar-i-Sharif allegedly by Taliban militia."
The Taliban has denied reports of human rights abuses but blocked independent monitoring.
Amnesty urged the Taliban to open up the area to foreign media and independent monitors and give a public account of "who they have arrested and why".
Across the border in Tashkent, President Islam Karimov, worried by the advance of the Taliban militia towards his frontiers, said Uzbekistan was ready to defend itself if necessary. "Today's situation in Afghanistan is very complicated," he added.
Mr Karimov, who has been ruling his impoverished nation of 24 million with an iron fist since Soviet times, has repeatedly expressed concern at the military success of the Taliban - which wishes to create the world's purest Islamist state - and the possible spread of militant Islam in Central Asia.