announcement or explanation, the Islamic Republic earlier this month blocked all tanker trucks carrying fuel from Iran into Afghanistan.
Afghan First Vice President Qasim Fahim flew to Tehran for a quick visit over the weekend and departed saying Iran had agreed to allow the tankers to start crossing the border again.
Even while Fahim was in Iran, the government said nothing about the real purpose of the visit, talking vaguely about “bilateral issues.”
But Fahim said, “We discussed the fuel tankers that have been stopped at the border. Agreements were reached for them to enter Afghanistan, so the fuel problem is resolved.”
The Iranian media, however, followed the regime’s directions and focused on an announcement by Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi saying that Iran offered “our experience and capabilities to strengthen the Afghan Army.”
Fahim arrived Saturday and departed Sunday. The Afghan Islamic Press (AIP), a private news service, reported that seven tankers were allowed to leave Iran Saturday and enter Afghanistan at the Islam Qala border post. But the AIP reporter said no tankers crossed while he was at the border post Sunday morning.
Most analysts in Iran and the West assumed the stoppage was the result of Iran’s new economic program stripping state subsidies from fuel sold in Iran. But the Afghans said Iran wasn’t seizing the fuel, merely stopping the tankers at the border and leaving the drivers and their trucks to stand idle.
Others noted that attacks on US military tanker trucks entering Afghanistan from Pakistan and political problems with Pakistan have interrupted US military fuel supplies. They suspected Iran might be holding back the fuel to cause pain for the Americans.
But the Afghan government said the tanker trucks stopped by Iran carried fuel exclusively for the Afghan commercial market and did not go into US military supply channels. While Iran has never alleged over the years that fuel entering Afghanistan from Iran went to the Americans, the Islamic Republic, contemplating the worst from the United States, may have concluded the US military would simply seize any commercial fuel it needed.
According to Afghan officials, tanker trucks were first halted around December 13. As of the weekend, the number of tankers stuck at the border was unknown with published reports ranging “hundreds” to “3,000.” They were backed up at three border crossings to Afghanistan going into Nimruz, Herat and Farah provinces.
Mozammil Shinwari, who handles foreign trade at the Afghan Commerce Ministry, told The Associated Press, “This fuel is brought in by Afghan businessmen. We asked the border authorities in Iran why the trucks were stopped, and were told that the order had come down from security officials in Tehran.” Shinwari said repeated queries to Tehran produced no explanation for the stoppage.
About a third of Afghan-istan’s fuel is said to come across the Iranian border. Most of the rest comes from Turkmenistan to the north. Afghanistan has no refineries.
