TEHRAN (Dispatches) – Iran says U.S. claims that Iranian guards were involved in the tragic deaths of a number of Afghan migrants near the border are "a bitter joke”.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry denounced the United States as a "war criminal” and "state sponsor of terror”, after U.S. Acting Assistant Secretary for South Asia Alice Wells accused Tehran of "cruel treatment and abuse of Afghan migrants”.
The official pounced on accusations that Iranian border guards had captured a group of Afghan immigrants who had crossed into the neighboring country in search of work and later pushed them into the Harirud river.
"Iran has strong ties with Afghanistan & leads the way to help Afghan leaders for inclusive Gvt. What happened to Afghan nationals in Herat is tragic & unrelated to Iran, but US regime’s allegation against Iran is a ‘bitter joke’. The regime is a war criminal in Afghanistan & state sponsor of terrorism across the world,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said in a tweet.
On Sunday, Iran’s Foreign
Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi said the incident had occurred on Afghan soil, and Iranian border guards have denied having any involvement in it.
Iran has hosted millions of Afghans who have made a living for more than four decades and been provided with free education for their children and other amenities by the Islamic Republic.
According to official statistics, Iran spends eight billion dollars on Afghan migrants every year.
Last month, Afghanistan’s mission to Tehran lauded Iran for providing free health services to any Afghan immigrant found to have contracted the COVID-19 disease.