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Iran Denies Involvement in Political Assassinations during Tajikistan Civil War

Tajik border guards checking identification documents of people crossing the Tajik-Afghan border on a bridge across the Panj River outside the city of Panj, August 2010. (AFP)
Tajik border guards checking identification documents of people crossing the Tajik-Afghan border on a bridge across the Panj River outside the city of Panj, August 2010. (AFP)
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Iran Denies Involvement in Political Assassinations during Tajikistan Civil War

Tajik border guards checking identification documents of people crossing the Tajik-Afghan border on a bridge across the Panj River outside the city of Panj, August 2010. (AFP)
Tajik border guards checking identification documents of people crossing the Tajik-Afghan border on a bridge across the Panj River outside the city of Panj, August 2010. (AFP)

Tehran rejected on Thursday accusations that it played a role in the civil war in Tajikistan in the 1990s, saying that the claims are “aimed at ruining the bilateral ties between the two countries.”

In a documentary aired by state television on Wednesday, three Tajik nationals attested to receiving training in Iran before assassinating political and prominent figures during the 1992-97 war. They also confessed to attacking a Russian military base in the Asian country.

The Iranian embassy in Tajikistan issued a statement on Thursday deeming the accusations as “baseless”, reported Reuters.

"The airing of such biased films... shows that certain circles do not want to see... stronger friendship between the two countries," it said.

It noted that the Tajik Minister of Energy had attended the swearing in ceremony of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday.

The documentary accused Tehran of being involved in the assassination of a parliament speaker, grand mufti, and a number of academics, journalists and politicians during the war.

The embassy statement said that Tehran had mediated between the warring parties in Tajikistan to end the war between the government forces and extremist-led armed opposition.

But ties between the two nations, both Persian-speaking and predominantly Muslim, have been strained since a leader of a banned Tajik extremist party attended a conference in Tehran in December 2015, which angered the government in Dushanbe.

The confessions mark the first public accusation against Iran of meddling in the Tajikistan civil war and diplomatic circles said that ties between the two countries had deteriorated two years ago.

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Taiwan Says China Tested Two Missiles During War Games

A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
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Taiwan Says China Tested Two Missiles During War Games

A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)
A Chinese flag flutters in the wind at a beach on Pingtan island, the closest point in China to Taiwan’s main island, in China’s Southeast Fujian province on October 15, 2024. (AFP)

China test-fired two missiles during a day of military drills around Taiwan, a Taiwanese security official said, adding they were directed inland and not at the self-ruled island.
Beijing deployed a record number of military aircraft as well as warships and coast guard vessels to encircle Taiwan on Monday, in the fourth round of large-scale drills in just over two years, reported AFP.
During the exercises, which lasted 13 hours, China test-fired two missiles "into the interior", the national security official told a briefing Wednesday on the condition of anonymity.
While the exercises were a "serious" threat, they did not mean that war was "imminent" or "inevitable", the official said.
Though "their ability to switch from exercises to war has been gradually strengthening, we still believe that war is not imminent and it is not inevitable", the official said.
After then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taiwan in August 2022, China unleashed massive military exercises that included sending missiles into the skies around Taiwan.
China's ruling Communist Party has never controlled Taiwan, but it claims the island as part of its territory and has said it will never renounce the use of force to take it.
Beijing has ramped up military pressure on the democratic island in recent years as it seeks to browbeat Taipei into accepting its claims of sovereignty.
China held war games three days after the inauguration of Taiwanese President Lai Ching-te in May, who Beijing calls a "separatist."
It held another round of drills on Monday after Lai vowed in his National Day speech last Thursday to "resist annexation" and insisted that China and Taiwan were not "not subordinate to each other".
The security official said an "important part" of China's drills on Monday was a blockade exercise against Taiwan.
"We can imagine how serious the threat was to Taiwan that day and how much pressure it put on Taiwan's military," the official said.
"If China actually blockades the Taiwan Strait or Taiwan's major ports, it would cause chaos in the international trade order."