Iran unveils mine clearance software program

TEHRAN, April 4 (MNA) – On the first day of the three-day international conference on the clearance of minefields, which started on Tuesday in Tehran, Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi unveiled a domestically designed software program which is used in mine-clearing operations. Iran needed mine clearance software programs to clear the minefields along its border with Iraq, which were created during the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq war, but Western countries had refused to provide Iran with these software programs. At the opening ceremony of the conference, Vahidi said all the minefields in the country’s border areas will be cleared by the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which started on March 20. The defense minister also criticized international organizations for not condemning the then Iraqi government for planting mines along its border with Iran during its war against the Islamic Republic in the 1980s and said that international organizations’ approach toward international and humanitarian issues should not be influenced by political considerations. Elsewhere in his remarks, he said that the purpose of the conference is to help step up campaigns against war rhetoric, terrorist groups, language of violence, and military threats. Iranian military and political officials, representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international organizations, and foreign ambassadors and military attaches based in Tehran attended the ceremony. On the sidelines of the conference, Iran’s latest achievements in the field of mine clearance will be displayed and a competition between mine-clearing robots will be held.