September 15, 2023
Iran’s dispute with Afghanistan over sharing the water from the Helmand River is getting testier and testier and drier and drier. Iran says the problem is that the Taliban have blocked the flow of water in the river. The river starts in the mountains near Kabul, flows westward across Afghanistan and then empties into the marshes near Zabul on the Iran-Afghan border.
Iran said months ago that the Taliban had agreed to allow Iranian experts to visit the dam that Iran complains is holding back the available water, while the Taliban say the drought means there is no water to hold back. But last month, Iran said the Taliban had not allowed Iran’s inspectors to access the dam.
The Islamic Republic is acting with ever more hostility. President Raisi has issued a warning to the Taliban ordering them to honor Afghanistan’s 1973 water supply agreement with Iran or face the consequences. This is the same kind of language the regime uses with the United States and any other country it has a dispute with: Do what we say or face the consequences. But it avoids saying what the “consequences” will be and usually there are none.
In early August, there was a skirmish along the border leaving two Iranian border guards and one Taliban dead. It isn’t clear how that gun duel erupted.
The 1973 agreement assigns a certain quantity of water to Iran, which Iran regularly cites when it accuses Kabul of violating the agreement. However, Iran fails to note that the agreement also says that the guaranteed supply must be “adjusted” in times of drought like now without explaining how to make the adjustments.
The two countries haggled over the water division before the Taliban takeover. It appears the dispute is worse now with the Taliban apparently holding back even more water or maybe there’s just less water in the river. No one really knows. But the minority Iranian Baluchis who live in the border area are getting less water and are even more disenchanted with the Iranian government. It is, therefore, in the govern-ment’s interest to blame everything on the Taliban.
Iran’s Foreign Ministry said August 10 that the Americans are doing their best to foment trouble along the Iran-Afghan border.
