Tension escalates between them… Taliban sets conditions to secure Iran’s share of water

Tensions are mounting over the past few days as verbal confrontations between Taliban and Tehran regime officials over the Helmand River’s water quota continue to escalate. The Taliban’s assistant secretary of state said: The Afghan government is committed to the 1972 agreement, provided there is enough water in the river.

In the past four to five years, Afghanistan and the region as a whole have experienced widespread drought and not enough water even behind the Kajaki Dam, he said in an interview with Afghanistan International.

Regarding the transportation of the Helmand River’s water to Iran in past years, Stanekzai said, “During 40 years of war in Afghanistan, all of Helmand’s water went to Iran, and Tehran has consumed more than its share of this river’s water over these years.”

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned Taliban officials not to violate Iran’s rights to the share of the river, asserting that the government is determined to restore the rights of the Iranian people wherever they are and that Afghanistan’s rulers should allow Iranian experts to visit the dam and verify the matter.

The Afghan Taliban responded to the Iranian president’s warning, saying, “The Iranians should use appropriate words and should not repeat such words.” In a statement, it added, “Iranian officials should correct their information about the waters of the Helmand River and release their positions using appropriate words and expressions,” considering that “the use of this language by the Iranian authorities could harm the political atmosphere between the Muslim peoples of Iran and Afghanistan, and this is in no one’s interest.”

Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban’s foreign minister, called on Iranian officials to “resolve the water quota issue through understanding and dialog, rather than through media hype”.

Muttaqi called on the Iranian regime not to make the water quota a “political issue” because “there is no water in the Kamal Khan Dam”, he said.

Nevertheless, Iranian officials claim that the Taliban are violating the terms of the agreement with Iran on the share of the Helmand River.

The Iranian-Afghan dispute over water is mainly centered on the Helmand River, which rises in the Hindou Kouch mountains in northeastern Afghanistan and flows into Lake Hamun inside Iranian territory, after crossing more than 1,300 kilometers into Afghanistan. The river is the most important water resource in both countries.