Iran\u2019s President Ebrahim Raisi has openly called on the Afghan leaders not to violate water rights of the Iranian people and said his government is determined to defend this right.<\/p>\n
Raisi warned the Taliban not to violate water rights of the people of Sistan and Baluchistan over their shared Helmand River, and called on the Taliban to take his world \u201cseriously\u201d.<\/p>\n
Raisi also said that the Taliban should allow Iranian hydrologists to check the water levels of the river.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/harici.com.tr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/e2b884de356928761091f78b6bc8f48ee463b86b-2500x1667-1.jpg\")
President Ebrahim Raisi during the inauguration ceremony of a project to supply water from the Gulf of Oman Iran\u2019s eastern cities on May 18, 2023.<\/p><\/div>\n
This is not the stop point as his Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian also came up with the same warning and said Iran will use \u201cpressure as a tool,\u201d to make the Taliban agree to allow its water from the Helmand River to flow inside Iran.<\/p>\n
Amirabdollahian raised the water issue during his trip to southeastern border provinces of Sistan and Baluchestan, where he is scheduled to follow up on the case of Iran\u2019s water rights, which has not become a center of a dispute with its neighbor Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Based on the 1973 treaty between Iran and Afghanistan, Amirabdollahian said that the people of Iran\u2019s Sistan and Baluchestan have \u201ca natural right\u201d to benefit from the water that flows into the country from Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Iranian Space Agency said satellite images showed that the Afghan government prevented water from reaching the Iranian side of the border in some places by creating numerous dams and diverting the flow of water.<\/p>\n
The agency said it was ready to submit the images, captured by the Iranian-made Khayyam satellite, to the Foreign Ministry.<\/p>\n
Afghan-Iran FMs spoke on phone<\/strong><\/p>\n Meanwhile, Afghanistan\u2019s acting foreign minister, Mawlavi Amir Khan Muttaqi held a telephonic conversation with Iranian counterpart Amirabdullahian, where the two sides discussed the expansion of cooperation in different sectors including trade, electricity, railway, common border, water and release of Afghan prisoners in Iran.<\/p>\n During the talk, Muttaqi expressed his satisfaction with the recent visit of the Afghanistan trade delegation headed by the country\u2019s minister of commerce and industry to Iran, and stressed that the two sides should intensify work to implement the Khaf-Herat railway project.<\/p>\n However, Muttaqi said that due to a drop in rainfall in the western parts of Afghanistan, the country has seen a significant drop in the amount of water in the Helmand River.<\/p>\n Taliban Spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also said that due to severe drought, the water levels have dropped but said Kabul is \u201ccommitted\u201d to fulfill its obligation in the water treaty.<\/p>\n Inappropriate statements harm ties\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n At the same time, Mujahid warned Iran over \u201cinappropriate statements\u201d, saying such behavior could harm ties between the two countries and should not be repeated.<\/p>\n Iranian officials have always stressed the importance of the implementation of the 1973 Helmand River treaty between Iran and Afghanistan, but Kabul says that drought and climate change has significantly reduced the level of water. At the same time Iran has been suffering from drought for some 30 years, but has worsened over the past decade, according to the U.N.\u2019s Food and Agriculture Organization.\u00a0 The Iran Meteorological Organization says that an estimated 97pc of the country now faces some level of drought.<\/p>\n Taliban Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said the Islamic Emirate is committed to the water treaty of Helmand signed in 1973 between Afghanistan and Iran.<\/p><\/div>\n To overcome the drought, Iran has called on the Taliban to open the gates of the Kajaki,\u201d a major hydroelectric power dam in Afghanistan on the river\u2019s path.<\/p>\n However, the dam has been dried up due to severe drought, but the Iranian authorities doubt Taliban\u2019s statement and say they need to go and see from near.<\/p>\n \u201cUntil Iran’s technical experts are not allowed to visit the water flow and upstream of Hirmand according to the Hirmand Treaty, especially Article 5 of Protocol No. 1 of that treaty, any comments regarding the reduction in Hirmand water are not acceptable,\u201d Iranian media Mehr reporting citing the country\u2019s foreign ministry\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n Diverting the river\u2019s water flow and non-cooperation on the part of Afghan officials cannot be justified by making political statements, the statement reads.<\/p>\n Still friendly negotiations on table<\/strong><\/p>\n Iran said that so far negotiations and talks have been held in a friendly atmosphere and by adhering to the principle of good neighborliness, and expects that such talks should continue to resolve any kind of issues as other options are also on the table.<\/p>\n The statement furthered that Iran has the right to use other options and reserves to take necessary actions to defend from its water interest, but called on Afghanistan to fulfill its responsibility based on the agreement.<\/p>\n Responding to the statement, Taliban said that the water agreement between Afghanistan and Iran was signed half a century ago in 1973 and is still valid.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Islamic Emirate is committed to implementing its obligations,\u201d Taliban foreign ministry said in a statement, and accused the Iranian side of lacking information on current water level and circumstances in the region.<\/p>\n Taliban said that Iranian officials should first complete their information about Helmand water and then express their demand with appropriate words.<\/p>\n Taliban once again retreated that \u201cinappropriate\u201d statements can harm the political relations between the two neighboring countries which is not in the interest of each side.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A dam near completion on the Helmand River in Afghanistan has become the center of disagreement between Afghanistan and Iran as both the neighbors\u2019 dispute over water rights. Afghanistan is considered as a self-sufficient water country but the irregularity and lack of structure has made it one of the lowest levels of water storage capacity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[1091,1345,1310,128,628,1344,1342,1341,1343],"class_list":["post-2641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia","category-middleeast","tag-climate-change","tag-drought","tag-neighbors","tag-politics","tag-security","tag-threaten","tag-treaty","tag-water","tag-water-dispute"],"yoast_head":"\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/harici.com.tr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.jpeg\")