A former Taliban General recently mocked Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi amid a water dispute between the two neighbouring countries. It happened after President Raisi warned the Afghan Government not to violate Iran’s Water Right over the shared Helmand River. Earlier, the Iranian President said: “I ask the rulers of Afghanistan not to consider my words a trivial matter and to take them very seriously.”

The dispute is centred around the Helmand River that originates in the Hindu Kush Mountains near Kabul, and flows southwest before joining the Hamoun Wetlands in southeast Iran. Both the countries heavily depend on the river to meet their agricultural and drinking water needs. For nearly three decades, Iran has been dealing with a drought problem and the situation has worsened over the past 10 years, with an estimated 97% of the West Asian nation facing some level of drought now.

Tehran has accused Kabul of restricting the flow of water from the Helmand River to Iran’s parched eastern region, violating a treaty signed in 1973. According to the treaty, Afghanistan has to supply Iran 820 million cubic metres of water per year. Iranian officials have claimed that the treaty has been compromised over the years. The treaty allows Afghanistan to hold full rights over the remaining water supply and to implement any project it deems fit, causing tensions between the two neighbours.

Iran has long accused Afghanistan of restricting the flow of water in the river by constructing dams. In 2021, Afghanistan inaugurated the Kamal Khan Dam to reportedly solve many of the region’s vast infrastructural and agricultural challenges. Tehran believes the dam restricts the flow of water that feeds the Hamoun Wetlands. However, the Taliban has claimed that it is committed to fulfil its obligations and that the water shortage is due to the prolonged droughts in the country.

Recently, this dispute turned ugly when two Iranian border guards and one Afghan soldier were killed after the two countries exchanged heavy gunfire in the border area. Iranian and Afghan officials have accused each other’s countries of causing the clashes.

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Published by Koushik Das

Koushik Das (born on May 16, 1976 in Kolkata) is a career journalist. Based in the Indian capital of New Delhi, Koushik writes mainly about foreign policies and current geopolitical issues, and rarely about other topics. His own political ideas are highly influenced by Antonio Gramsci, Louis Althusser, Michel Foucault, Michael Oakeshott and others. English philosopher and political theorist Oakeshott (Dec 11, 1901-Dec 19, 1990) says that “in political activity, men sail a boundless and bottomless sea. There is neither harbour for shelter nor floor for anchorage, neither starting-place, nor appointed destination. But we have to keep afloat”. (Rationalism in Politics, 1962) As a student of Political Science, Koushik loves to share his views on issues, which have great impacts on his thought process (and also on India, South Asia and of course on the global community), with his readers through his website – Boundless Ocean of Politics. By doing so, he tries to keep himself afloat. You will find some of his articles in https://inserbia.info/today/ (https://inserbia.info/today/author/kou_das13_i/), as he has been trying to assess the global geopolitics since 2003. You can also mail him at kousdas@gmail.com View all posts by Koushik Das