UN official in Tehran to discuss Afghan crisis

The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator, Kenzo Oshima, arrived in the Iranian capital, Tehran, on Wednesday for talks with top Iranian government officials and aid workers on the mounting crisis in neighbouring Afghanistan.

Oshima, who spent three days in Pakistan prior to arriving in Iran, is in the region at the request of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to review plans to cope with the humanitarian emergency inside Afghanistan, and new waves of Afghan refugees expected in the region. Oshima carried messages from Annan to Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf.

The UN has said that it expects up to 1.5 million Afghan refugees may seek refuge in neighbouring countries in coming weeks, including some 400,000 in Iran. One million new refugees are expected in Pakistan, although both Pakistan and Iran have closed their borders. Iran has told the UN that it would prefer to try to assist Afghans in need by building camps on the Afghan side of the border. The UN, meanwhile, has continued to press both Iran and Pakistan to reopen their borders.

Following the terrorist attacks on the United States on 11 September, over one million people inside Afghanistan have fled from their homes, fearing US reprisals against the prime suspect in the attacks, Osama bin Laden, who is being sheltered in Afghanistan by the country's ruling Taliban Islamic Movement. The UN has described the mounting emergency in Afghanistan as "a humanitarian crisis of stunning proportions".

An IRIN staff member travelling with Oshima told IRIN on Wednesday that Oshima had visited Mashhad, the provincial capital of Khorasan Province, which borders Afghanistan, and was scheduled to meet with the President Khatami later that day.