Iran arrests Afghans and Pakistanis joining Islamic State

Iran says it has arrested Afghan and Pakistani citizens who were trying to join Islamic State (IS) jihadists fighting in Syria and Iraq.

Iranian Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani said the foreigners planned to cross Iran – but did not specify how many had been arrested, or where.

Shia Iran is opposed to the Sunni extremists of IS, who have undermined its allies in Iraq and Syria.

Iran is said to be prepared to work alongside the US against IS in Iraq.

Sources in Tehran told BBC Persian last week that Iran’s Supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had authorised his top commander to co-ordinate the fight against IS with US, Kurdish and Iraqi forces.

However, Iran’s foreign ministry denied that it would co-operate with the US against IS.

Iran has traditionally opposed US involvement in Iraq, an Iranian ally.

Recently however, both the US and Iran have offered military assistance to combat IS in Iraq, while refusing to place their troops on the ground.

US Secretary of State John Kerry is due in Jordan and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to try to build regional support to counter the threat posed by Islamic State, a US state department spokeswoman said.

Fighters led by IS, an extremist group which is also known as Isis and Isil, seized a large stretch of borderless territory across Iraq and Syria this summer, declaring the land they control a caliphate.

Iran borders Iraq to the west, and Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east.

US President Barack Obama is expected to detail a plan of action against IS in a speech on Wednesday.

Mr Obama has been heavily criticised for remarks at a recent press conference when he said that the US had yet to form a strategy for dealing with IS.