TEHRAN – Iran will use its domestically produced unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to control its borders, the commander of Iran’s National Border Police said during a press conference in Tehran on Monday.

Brigadier General Hossein Zolfaqari said that some of the UAVs have been successfully tested and approved by the border police, adding, “We have informed the manufacturers of the UAVs about our needs.”  

In reply to a question about the three Iranian border guards who are under arrest in Pakistan, Zolfaqari said that a number of meetings have been held with Pakistani border police officials to ask them to release the Iranians as soon as possible.

Pakistani authorities announced on January 1 that they have arrested three Iranian border guards who had inadvertently crossed into southwestern Pakistan while chasing after smugglers, AP reported. 

Zolfaqari also said that according to a bilateral treaty between the Islamic Republic and Pakistan, in which the two sides agreed to return the people or forces that unintentionally cross into each other’s borders, the Iranian border guards will hopefully be freed and returned to home.

Asked about an Iranian soldier who was martyred by Azerbaijan’s border guards on October 20, 2011, Zolfaqari said Azerbaijani border guards killed the Iranian soldier by firing 14 bullets on him and this is indicative of the fact that they had intentionally killed the soldier.

If they claim that they are a friendly neighbor of Iran, their words should not be contrary to their actions, he said, adding that they should put their words into action because Iran cannot accept the double-standard approaches of the Azerbaijani government.   

  

Elsewhere in his remarks, Zolfaqari said that Iranian border guards have seized over 50 tons of various types of illicit drugs over the last 9 months of the current Iranian year which started March 21, 2011. 

Zolfaqari went on to say that the amount of the seized drugs at the Iranian borders has increased by 18% over the first nine months of the current year compared with the same period last year.