FinPol Digest

 The security of Iran's shared border with Afghanistan is absolutely secured, according to a senior Iranian military officer, because the Iranian Army's Ground Force has complete authority over the area. One day after armed clashes between Iranian border guards and Taliban fighters in the region claimed the lives of three people, Kioumars Heydari, commander of the Iranian Army's Ground Force, made the comments during a visit to Iran's southeast Sistan and Baluchestan province, which borders Afghanistan. According to him, the Iranian armed forces' presence on the shared border does not indicate that the nation is in danger; rather, it is done to preserve intelligence dominance and guarantee border security. He also said that while Iran is devoted to the idea of good neighborliness, it will retaliate if the other side does not follow the law. The confrontations ceased on Saturday, according to Iran's deputy police chief Qassem Rezaei, who was present during the vi...

  Iraq and Iran signed a border security agreement on Sunday, a move Iraqi officials said aimed primarily at tightening the frontier with Iraq's Kurdish region, where Tehran says armed Kurdish dissidents pose a threat to its security, Reuters reports. The joint security agreement includes coordination in "protecting the common borders between the two countries and consolidating cooperation in several security fields", a statement from the Iraqi prime minister's office said. Iran's Supreme National Security Council secretary Ali Shamkhani signed the deal with Iraq's National Security Advisor Qasim al-Araji, in the presence of Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed al-Sudani, the prime minister's office said. "Under the signed security deal, Iraq pledges it would not allow armed groups to use its territory in the Iraqi Kurdish region to launch any border-crossing attacks on neighbour Iran," said an Iraqi security official who attended the signing. The fron...

 Egypt and Sudan have launched a joint military exercise dubbed Guardian of the South-2 at the border guard training fields complex in Egypt , Egyptian Armed Forces spokesperson, Colonel Gharib Abdel Hafez, announced yesterday. "The Egyptian border guards and the Sudanese infantry are participating in the exercise, which will last for several days," Colonel Abdel Hafez said in a statement. The first phase of the training included an "exhibition of weapons and equipment used by border security to combat smuggling and infiltration, as well as lectures and practical exercises for both sides to exchange combat expertise," the statement added. This comes within the framework of the "joint training plan to transfer and exchange experiences, enhance aspects of military cooperation, and develop joint action between the Egyptian and Sudanese armed forces." Over the past two years, the Egyptian and Sudanese armies have increased joint exercises, in light of tension...