Aid convoy moves in from Iran

While Iranian officials continue to keep their side of the border sealed to a possible influx of new refugees, Afghanistan's opposition Northern Alliance reopened the country's western border for commercial traffic after closing it for nearly a day, a spokesman for the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the Iranian border town of Dogharun told IRIN on Wednesday. Security concerns and the closure from Monday evening until Tuesday morning delayed over 300 trucks from crossing over.

"The Iranian border remains closed, but the Afghan side is now open," the UNHCR spokesman, Mohammad Nouri, said on Wednesday. He said the Northern Alliance made the move after taking control of the area from the Taliban. Nouri went on to confirm that an important aid convoy, comprising 11 trucks from Iran's Red Crescent Society (IRCS) and four from UNHCR, had passed into Afghanistan on Wednesday afternoon, the second such convoy in less than a month.

The relief aid included 2,000 family size plastic sheetings and 10,000 blankets. Bound for the western Afghan city of Herat, the material would be distributed to some of the 250,000 to 300,000 internally displaced persons in six camps around the city, he said.

He said the convoy had been delayed for more than a week due to security concerns arising from clashes reported to have taken place between the Afghan border town of Eslam Qaleh and Herat. The Iranian foreign ministry later authorised the convoy to proceed following security assurances from the Northern Alliance on Tuesday.

In its first convoy, the IRCS sent in 100 mt of food and non-food items, with UNHCR monitoring and accompanying the convoy from the northeastern city of Mashhad to the border.

Despite repeated calls by the UN to open its border should an influx occur, Tehran maintains it can no longer host any additional Afghan refugees. Instead, the government has proposed establishing a series of camps inside Afghan territory along the 900-km common border - two of which are currently operating adjacent to Sistan-Baluchestan Province. The IRCS administers both the Mahkaki and Mile-46 camps, now inside Northern Alliance-held territory, respectively housing about 5,000 and 3,000 newly displaced people.