Tehran: Iranian authorities have detained three foreigners travelling through Iran under the suspicion they were planning to join the extremists Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil) in neighbouring Iraq, a state-owned Tehran newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The report by the IRAN daily quoted Interior Minister Abdul Reza Rahmani Fazli as saying Iranian border guards stopped several travellers en route to Iraq and had “three cases of arrests”.

Fazli, who spoke at a meeting of provincial governors along with Iran’s chief of police, said that Afghan and Pakistani nationals were arrested but did not provide a breakdown.

The report did not say when or where the arrests happened. Fazli’s remarks were a rare mention by an Iranian official of the possibility of Isil supporters being present in Iran.

The predominantly Shiite Iran supports the Iraqi government’s struggle against Isil militants who this summer overran much of western and northern Iraq, along with seizing territory in eastern Syria.

Tehran also provides military advisers to Baghdad in the anti-militant campaign against Isil. It denies having any forces on the ground in neighbouring Iraq.

President Barack Obama is seeking an international coalition to challenge Isil and is expected to outline his plan on Wednesday. The US began conducting airstrikes last month against Isil militants in Iraq in what amounts to the first American military action in the country since American troops left in 2011.

Fazli, the Iranian interior minister, also sought to calm Iranian concerns on the insurgency next door. Iran’s Sunnis, an extremely small minority, live along Iran’s border with Iraq, as well along the Pakistan, Afghanistan borders.

“There is no space in Iran for terrorist groups,” said Fazli, adding that “Iranian security forces and the people living near the border are aware of the dangers”.

The report also quoted the police chief, Gen Esmail Ahmadi Moghadam, as saying that there have been reports, apparently from Iranian Sunni families, that Isil has tried to recruit their sons.

He assured the audience that “there is no room for concern”, adding that Iran’s police is “fully ready” to face any threats from the militant group.