October 14, 2022
Iran’s relations with the new Taliban government in Afghanistan may best be described as “adequate,” admittedly not a term in normal use diplomatically.
Neither government seems to like or trust the other. But both want to get along because they each have too much on their plates to want to get dragged into a confrontation.
The Islamic Republic does not recognize the new regime in Kabul but it allows the Taliban to post diplomats at the old embassy building in Tehran and it maintains the Iranian embassy in Kabul. That may sound non-sensical, but Iran allowed the Iraqi embassy in Tehran to operate through all eight years of the 1980-88 war, though it won’t allow the US to station even one visa officer in Tehran even while Iran sends four diplomats to work in Washington!
Iran has long seen itself as the protector of the Shiites in Afghanistan. Since the Taliban, who view Shiites as apostates, took power August last year, many Shiites have been killed. Most have died in bombings that have been the work of the Islamic State, but some appear to have been the work of Taliban with traditional feelings toward Shiites. The regime has halted anti-Shiite propaganda, and the sporadic killings of Shiites appear to be the work of over-zealous party members rather than regime-sponsored.
A mob also tried to attack the Iranian embassy in Kabul April 11. The regime poured out security troops so the mob was never able to do more than break some windows and security cameras with rocks.
The Taliban have done nothing to address the long-running Iranian complaints over Afghanistan’s diversion of water that should be allowed to flow into Iran. Iran complains bitterly about that although the previous Afghan government, and the government before that, and the government that preceded that one all stiffed Iran on water, so there is nothing new there.
On May 7, the Taliban issued a decree requiring that all women must cover their faces not just their hair, as in Iran any time they leave the home. Iran has maintained studious silence on that topic, perhaps because the Taliban are only making Iran look less unreasonable.
Perhaps the biggest issue for Iran is the flood of refugees that pours across the border into Iran in much larger numbers since the Taliban took power. Iran expels busloads every day, but that doesn’t stop the inflow. Many of the incoming Afghans don’t stay in Iran; they just press on to the Turkish border, providing yet another irritant for the declining relations between Iran and Turkey, which complains that Iran does nothing to stop the refugees.
A long series of videos showing Iranians abusing Afghan refugees has been posted on social media, which inflames attitudes in Afghanistan, where Iranians have long been viewed as treating Afghans like cattle.
