“The border closure plan started in the southeast of the country and is now being implemented at the Hangeh-ye Zhal border of Baneh,” border guard chief Ahmad Ali Goudarzi told Iran’s IRNA news agency.
Hangeh-ye Zhal is a Kurdish-populated village in Baneh county in Iran’s Kurdistan province, close to the Penjwen border crossing. Kurdistan province shares a mountainous border with the Kurdistan Region.
The goal of the plan is to enhance security measures along the borders, including building walls, in areas where smuggling occurs and armed opposition groups are located, IRNA reported in October, citing Mohammad Aref Sepehri, a border guard commander.
The project started in eastern Iran in Sistan and Baluchestan province that borders Afghanistan and Pakistan and extends towards the western borders in Kurdish-inhabited areas of Western Azerbaijan and Kurdistan provinces.
Attacks on Iranian security forces in Sistan and Baluchestan province are frequently carried out by armed Baluchi groups, primarily Jaish al-Adl.
“Based on security and military assessments, the most critical areas are the borderlines with Pakistan and Afghanistan, which account for 80% of drug trafficking into Iran,” Goudarzi said.
The cost of the project is estimated at three billion euros and “is supposed to be done within a maximum of five years,” he added.
Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups were based in the Kurdistan Region close to the border with Iran before they were moved away from the frontier as part of a security pact signed by Baghdad and Tehran last year.
The Iranian-Kurdish opposition groups are the Kurdistan Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), Komala, Free Life Party of Kurdistan (PJAK), and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK).
The Kurdistan Region-Iran border is porous and there are numerous well-trodden smuggling routes. Kolbars are semi-legal porters who transport untaxed goods across the border and are frequently targeted by Iranian security forces.
Many kolbars are pushed into the profession by poverty and a lack of alternative employment. The Iranian government accuses kolbars of bringing weapons into the country and being used by its enemies.
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