On May 27, 2023, the Taliban and Iranian forces exchanged gunfire near the border, killing and wounding troops while sharply escalating rising tensions between the two countries and a dispute over water rights.
The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) quoted the country’s deputy police chief General Qaseem Rezazi who accused the Taliban of opening fire on the border with Sistan in Iran and the Afghan province of Nimroz. The IRNA said that Iran inflicted “heavy casualties and serious damage.”
From the Taliban’s perspective, the Afghan Interior Ministry spokesperson Abdul Nafi Takor accused Iran of shooting first. Takor said the firefight killed two people, one from each country, and wounded another. At present, the situation is now under control.
Quoting Iranian police, the IRNA said that two border guards were killed However, the number will be higher. The semi-official English language newspaper Tehran Times wrote that the fighting killed three Iranian border guards.
It also said that the Milak border crossing with Afghanistan, an important trade route, was closed until further notice over the gunfight. “The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan considers dialogue to be a reasonable way for any problem,” says Enayatullah Khwarizmi, an Afghan Defense Ministry spokesperson said in a statement.
“Making excuses for war and negative actions is not in the interests of any parties,” he said.
An Advocacy group HalVAsh reports on issues affecting the Baluch people in the predominately Sunni province of Sistan and Balochistan, quoted residents in the area suggesting that the fighting occurred near the Kang District of Nimroz. It said that some people in the area had fled the violence.
Videos posted online, purportedly from the area, included the crack of machine gun fire in the distance. Pictures later posted an image of what appears to be the remains of a mortar round, saying that “heavy weapons and mortars are being used.”
Later videos showed Iranian forces firing a mortar and Taliban troops firing American-made machine guns at an Iranian Border Post. Other Taliban fighters drove armoured vehicles left behind by the US forces after they left Afghanistan.
“The border forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will decisively respond to any aggression, transgression and the current authorities of Afghanistan must be held accountable for their unmeasured and contrary actions to international principles,” the IRNA quoted General Ahmad Raza Radan as saying.
The clash comes as Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi earlier this month warned the Taliban not to violate Iran’s water rights to the Helmand River. His remarks represented some of the strongest yet the longest-running concerns about water in Iran.
Drought has been a major problem in Iran for 30 years but has worsened over the past decades, as per the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO). The Iran Meteorological Organisation says that 97 per cent of Iran suffers from droughts. The Taliban seized Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO troops were in the final weeks of pull-out from the country after 20 years of war.
While not engaging in accepting the Taliban government, Iran has maintained relations with the Taliban. Tehran has called to allow women and girls to go to school.
Earlier on May 27, 2023, the former Taliban minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with an Iranian envoy to Afghanistan to discuss Helmand River Rights, and according to the tweets from Zia Ahmed, the IRNA acknowledged the meeting, saying that issues between the two countries will be better resolved through dialogue.
But tensions have been arising. Another video posted online in recent days purportedly showed a standoff between Iranian forces and the Taliban as Iranian construction workers tried to reinforce the border between the two countries. Recently, pro-Taliban accounts online have been sharing a video with a song calling on Mullah Yaqoob, the acting defence minister, to stand up to Iran.
Yaqoob is the son of Mullah Mohammed Umar, who created the Taliban and was the first supreme leader. “we are a government. We have the power, the song goes. “Our Leader, Mullah Yaqoob, will stand against Iran.”
