TEHRAN (FNA)- Commander of the Iranian Police's Air Force Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Beiranvand said the country's border guards are using different kinds of aircraft, including Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, to carry out their missions.
"To enhance Iran's border security, a major part of our energy is directed at the country's borders in the East and the sensitivity which exists in this regard has made us use different types of aircraft to reach the borders in the least possible time (whenever needed)," Beiranvand told FNA on the sidelines of the 20th international press and news agencies exhibition in Tehran on Monday.
"We use drones to monitor the Eastern borders and we have reconnaissance flying objects which are used wherever necessary," he added.
Beiranvand said that the Law Enforcement Police has a sufficient number of drones to carry out its missions and uses them whenever necessary.
Commander of the Iranian Border Guards Units General Hossein Zolfaqari announced in June that his forces will soon use Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to patrol the country's borders.
"We are in the process of signing contracts with the manufacturing companies to use drones for protecting the country's borders," Zolfaqari told reporters at the time.
Also in October, Iran's Police Chief Brigadier General Esmayeel Ahmadi Moqaddam vowed to overcome deficiencies in controlling the country's Southeastern borders, where a spat of terrorist attacks have been launched on Iran by terrorist groups who use neighboring Pakistan as their springboard.
"Our borders should receive more attention as the threats around us are serious," Ahmadi Moqaddam told reporters in Tehran.
He criticized certain neighboring states for their lax border control, and said, "Terrorist groups rather enjoy excessive freedom of action and use Pakistan's soil to hit a blow at Iran."
Yet, he underscored that his troops are "chasing the terrorists".
Ahmadi Moqaddam called for more investment in border control systems, and said, "We should have fully secure borders."
Asked about the police's plans for tightening border controls and sealing, he said 10 years ago terrorist attacks occurred in the Northern parts of the Southeastern province of Sistan and Balouchestan, but after Iran sealed the borders in those areas, insecurities spread to the regions whose borders with Pakistan have not yet been sealed.
His remarks came after four Iranian police officers, including a conscript, were killed in two terrorist attacks on a border post in Sistan and Balouchestan in October.