News / Politics

Tehran voices concern over Kyrgyz-Tajik clashes, calls for end to border dispute through dialogue

Saturday, 17 September 2022 6:08 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 17 September 2022 6:11 PM ]

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kana’ani addresses a weekly press conference in Tehran on July 25, 2022. (File photo by Tasnim)

The spokesperson of Iran’s Foreign Ministry has voiced concern over recent military clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, calling on both sides to solve disputes through peaceful means.

Nasser Kan'ani released a statement on Saturday in reaction to recent clashes between Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan in joint border areas.

Expressing concern over the escalation of conflict, the spokesman called for sustainable peace and solving the disputes through dialogue and peaceful means.

Referring to the Islamic Republic of Iran’s friendly relations with the two former Soviet republics, the diplomat expressed Tehran’s readiness to help resolve the issues between the two neighbors.

The statement comes after fresh clashes erupted on Friday morning in joint border areas. Both sides have accused each other of using tanks, mortars, rocket artillery, and assault drones to attack outposts and nearby settlements.

According to reports, the clashes have claimed the lives of 54 people so far. Kyrgyzstan announced that 24 of its citizens have been killed while some 137,000 others evacuated from the conflict zone.

Tajikistan has not yet officially announced its casualties but according to reports, some 30 people have been killed this week, including 15 who were in a mosque that Tajikistan says was struck by a Kyrgyz drone.

Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border conflict escalates amid fresh skirmishes

Fresh clashes have erupted on the Tajikistan-Kyrgyzstan border, with Kyrgyz border guards accusing Tajik forces of opening fire on several of its outposts in the wee hours of Friday morning.

On Friday evening, the Kyrgyz president's office said in a statement the two sides had agreed in a meeting in Uzbekistan to order a ceasefire and the withdrawal of troops from the disputed areas.

According to the latest reports, the ceasefire is holding up despite accusations that both sides trade over violations of the truce.

Fighting regularly flares up between the two countries that share a 970-kilometer border, with about half of the frontier contested.

The fighting has raised fears of yet another conflict in the ex-Soviet region after unprecedented clashes between the two sides killed 50 people in 2021.

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