Brussels, 10/10/2002 (Agence Europe) - "Iran has strongly assured me that it will not allow any Al-Qaida elements, if it knows they are inside its borders, to remain", EU Special Envoy to Afghanistan Francesc Vendrell told the press on Tuesday after a meeting with Iranian officials. He added that the Iranian authorities had, however, stressed that "given the length of the border between Iran and Afghanistan, it is absolutely impossible to ensure no unsavoury elements cross the borders into Iran". When questioned about the possibility that Iran would be a target for Washington in its war against terrorism, Mr Vendrell said he could not imagine "why the United States would wish, even if there were a conflict with Iraq, to go beyond that and wish in any way to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran". "I would have great difficulty in understanding how Iran can be put in the same bag as Iran", he said. Francesc Vendrell, who was in Teheran to speak of the reconstruction of Afghanistan, said, moreover, that he had not detected any sign that Iran would seek to undermine the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. He added that Iran had promised not to provide weapons to the warlords operating in the western part of Afghanistan, traditionally under Teheran's sphere of influence. "The Iranian authorities have assured me that any assistance, military or other, given to Afghanistan will be channelled through President Karzai", the diplomat went on, concluding that he had found many points of convergence with the Iranian government on what must be done in Afghanistan.