Commander of the Iranian Border Guards Units General Hossein Zolfaqari underlined 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 on Wednesday.

General Zolfaqari also pointed to the abducted Iranian border guard who is in custody of Pakistan-based Jeish al-Adl terrorist group, and said that although the terrorist group has claimed that it has executed Jamshid Danayeefar, “we have sufficient evident to prove that he is still alive”.

Danayeefar was among the five Iranian border guards who were abducted by Jeish Al-Adl terrorist group in Iran's Southeastern Sistan and Balouchestan province earlier this year. Four of them were released after two months, while the group had claimed a week earlier that it had executed Danayeefar.

Jeish Al-Adl has done a number of terrorist operations in the province in the last several months. The group is based in Pakistan and escapes to the country each time it conducts an operations in Iran.

To have a better monitoring and control over the borders, Iranian border guard forces have announced that they plan to make use of various technological tools and equipment to better fight such terrorist actions.

In March 2013, General Zolfaqari announced Iranian border guards have begun testing UAVs for patrolling the country's Eastern borders.

“The implementation of this project has begun in South Khorasan and Sistan and Baluchestan Provinces, and multiple daily flights are conducted to evaluate the performance of the drones,” Zolfaqari said.

He added that upon the completion of the pilot project, Iranian border guards will use UAVs to patrol borders.

In April 2014, General Zolfaqari said that Iran plans to modernize its borders monitoring system. “Border monitoring system will be deployed in border regions after the parliament allocates the needed budget.”

He noted that border monitoring systems will help better control border conditions and movements, and "\”through the online observation of the borders, the border checkpoints will be notified in case of having a weakness (in their performance).”

General Zolfaqari also added that once the monitoring systems are stationed, electronic watch towers will be set up along the borders as well.

Source: FNA

Photo: Yasir UAV during inauguration ceremony; September 2013