The Telegraph - London - 09/19/98
By Alan Philps, Middle East Correspondent
TENS of thousands of Iranians chanting "vengeance, vengeance" marched through the streets of Teheran yesterday as the stand-off between Iran and Afghanistan reached a critical phase.
Iran is expected to begin huge military exercises along the border over the weekend in a show of force designed to intimidate the ruling militia, the Taliban, whose men killed nine Iranians last month.
Carrying black flags and beating their chests in sign of mourning, men and women converged on the capital's university campus for the Friday prayer meeting. Some carried banners demanding that the Islamic Republic arm the estimated one million Afghan refugees on Iranian soil for a punitive assault on the Taliban. Funerals for seven of the dead Iranians - two remain unidentified - were expected to take place later.
After a hurried visit to Teheran, Pakistan's Foreign Minister, Sartaj Aziz, announced that the Taliban would release five Iranian prisoners today as a goodwill gesture.
The minister conveyed a message to the Iranian leadership denying their claims that Pakistan was masterminding the successful assault of the Taliban, who now control about 90 per cent of the country. The
Taliban leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, who uses the ancient Islamic title of Commander of the Faithful, has called a meeting on Monday of Islamic scholars, a forum which could endorse a call for the mobilisation of Taliban forces to withstand the expected Iranian onslaught. Taliban radio stepped up the war of words with Teheran, accusing the ayatollahs of murdering 56 Afghan refugees, including eight said to have been beheaded.
The Iranians are believed to be mobilising up to 200,000 men on the border, including tanks, artillery and aircraft. The Taliban are outnumbered and outgunned, but they have a fearsome reputation as fighters. The Iranians will take their accusations of Taliban "genocide" against Afghan Shi'ite Muslims to New York next week.
The Foreign Minister, Kamal Kharrazi, will have a rare meeting with the American Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, as part of an eight-nation conference on how to end the crisis. Diplomats believe a war between Iran and the Taliban would have a devastating effect on an area stretching from Pakistan to the Muslim republics of the former Soviet Union.
Afghanistan has been plagued by war for two decades. But a conflict between the Taliban - who are imposing an ultra-strict form of Sunni Islam - and the Iranians, who espouse the Shia doctrine, could inflame passions over the region.
Pakistan is held responsible by the Iranians for the successful onslaught of the Taliban. The Taliban - which means "students of Islam" - were originally recruited among ethnic Pushtuns in Islamic theological colleges.
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