Iran-Afghanistan Relations

Satellite images reveal how the interim government in Afghanistan is blocking the flow of Helmand River, a lifeline for residents of Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan Province, into the other side of border, by building several dams on the river.

The Iranian deputy justice minister says the Islamic Republic is the top destination of around 63 percent of Afghan refugees fleeing a host of crises in their homeland.

Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said on Monday that the country's border areas with Afghanistan is tranquil following the recent skirmishes between Iranian border guards and Taliban forces.

Iran’s ex-ambassador to Afghanistan says the interim Taliban rulers are using shared water resources as well as the closure of Dogharoun border with Iran as lever against Tehran, calling for vigilance in the face of risks of fresh clashes with the Afghan side.

Iran closes the Milak border crossing with Afghanistan, a major trade route, “until further notice,” following an exchange of heavy gunfire between Iranian border guards and Taliban forces.

Two Iranian border guards have been killed in an exchange of fire with Afghanistan’s Taliban forces near a border post between the two countries, amid escalating tensions over Kabul’s violations of Tehran’s water rights.

Clashes have broken out between Iranian border guards and Afghanistan’s Taliban forces on the joint border between the two countries, media reports say.

An Iranian lawmaker and ex-envoy to Afghanistan says the southeastern border province of Sistan and Baluchestan will face numerous problems if the water shortages, caused by the Taliban’s blocking of Helmand River’s inflow, drag on for three more months.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian says Tehran is discontent with the fact that an inclusive government has not been formed yet in Afghanistan, adding Iran will not recognize the current Taliban rulers of Afghanistan.

Iranian Vice President for Legal Affairs Mohammad Dehqan says Tehran would seek arbitration if negotiations over water rights fail with the Afghan Taliban.

Newly-released satellite images show a considerable amount of water at the two controversial dams built by Afghanistan on the Helmand River shared with Iran, contrary to the Taliban’s claims of water shortages there.

The Taliban defense ministry says Iran and Afghanistan concluded the talks between their military delegations with an emphasis on the international and border obligations of both sides in line with the interests of the two countries.

Iran’s Jomhouri Eslami newspaper, in an article, has slammed proponents of interaction with the Taliban in Afghanistan as a water dispute with the group escalates.

A senior Iranian military official has travelled to the Afghan capital, Kabul, for talks with caretaker Taliban authorities, amid tensions between the two sides over Tehran’s water rights from the Helmand River.

The Iranian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan says the interim Taliban rulers have one month to provide Iran access to its share of water from the Helmand River, and that they will be responsible for the consequences if they fail to do so.

Even the Iranian apologists of the Taliban now know that putting up with the group doesn’t work, an Iranian daily says, amid the former group’s refusal to release Iran’s water shares from Helmand River into Iranian territory.

An Iranian vice president says Tehran will pursue its rights from the Helmand River under a “special” agenda in the wake of President Ebrahim Raisi’s warning to the interim Taliban rulers in Afghanistan.

The Iranian Foreign Ministry has strongly rejected a claim by the Afghan ruling Taliban government over the group’s failure to provide Iran access to its water share from Helmand River.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian says Iran will use “pressure as a tool,” if necessary, to make the interim Taliban rulers in Afghanistan to allow the Islamic Republic access to its share of water from the Helmand River.

President Ebrahim Raisi delivers a warning to the caretaker Taliban government in Afghanistan against ridding the people of Iran’s border province of Sistan and Baluchestan of their rights to get access to their share of water from the Helmand River.

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian has emphasized that Iran’s water rights from Helmand River are a serious matter and would affect ties with the Taliban government.

A video has ricocheted around social media that purportedly shows a number of people throwing packages of opium and other narcotics into the Iranian side of the border from Afghanistan.

The Iranian deputy minister of science, research and technology says the country is hosting around 40,000 university students, and that three Iranian universities are ready to give admissions to female Afghans, who are denied of the right to higher education at home.

An Iranian news outlet has criticized the Raisi administration for inviting the Taliban representative to an Iftar banquet hosted by the President, while Tehran does not still recognize the interim Afghan government and that Kabul has no ambassador or diplomat officially posted to the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s ex-ambassador to Afghanistan says the interim Taliban rulers are behind the drying up of the Hamoun wetlands in eastern Iran by cutting the flow of Hirmand River waters into the Iranian side of the border and diverting the waters through a dam to their opium fields.