TEHRAN, Iran
Iranian border guards and Taliban forces engaged in fierce cross-border clashes last week, resulting in the deaths of three people, two in Iran and one on the Afghan side.
The confrontation came as tensions escalate over a long-running water dispute that has taken center stage in recent weeks, with Iranian officials mounting pressure on the interim Taliban government to settle the matter.
Iran and the Taliban shared close contact before the group, in a dramatic turn of events, overthrew the US-backed Afghan government and swept back to power in August 2021.
In the last two years, however, relations have soured amid frequent border skirmishes and a status quo over the protracted water-sharing issue.
Iran and Afghanistan share a 900-kilometer (559-mile) border that runs from Turkmenistan in the north to Pakistan in the south, a largely porous frontier.
What happened at the Iran-Afghan border?
Last week, a Taliban soldier and two Iranian border guards were killed in fierce clashes at a border outpost in Iran’s southeastern Sistan-Baluchestan province.
What triggered the confrontation at the Sasuli border outpost remains unclear. Iranian media cited officials as saying that the Taliban were the first to open fire and the Iranians retaliated.
Iran’s deputy police chief Qasem Rezaei accused the Taliban of initiating the flare-up, saying that Iranian forces gave a “decisive” response after issuing “initial warnings.”
Abdul Nafi Takor, a spokesman for the Afghan Interior Ministry, disputed the Iranian version.
In a statement a day after the fighting, he said Iranian border forces fired toward Afghanistan’s Nimroz province and Taliban border forces responded.
Immediately after the deadly altercation, Iranian authorities closed the Milak-Zaranj border post, one of the main points for trade and commerce between the neighbors.
Iranian officials have also refuted reports about the use of missiles, saying only light weapons, crew-served weapons, and artillery were used.
What have the two sides said?
The border clashes have inflamed already high tensions between Tehran and Kabul over the water dispute, with officials from both sides trading barbs.
In a scathing warning, Brig. Gen. Kioumars Heidari, commander of the Iranian army’s ground forces, said Iran will “reconsider its approach” if Afghanistan fails to respect international border regulations and principles of good neighborly relations.
Iran’s Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi said tensions have eased on the border in Sistan-Baluchestan, as talks were held immediately to defuse the situation.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian has also stressed the need to resolve existing issues “through dialogue.”
Bilal Karimi, a spokesman for the interim Taliban government, told Afghanistan’s Tolo News that their policy “is not tension and conflict.”
How often have they clashed?
Last week’s confrontation at the Sasuli outpost was the latest in a series of border skirmishes since the Taliban returned to power.
In early March, there were fierce clashes between Iranian border guards and Taliban in the city of Hirmand in Sistan-Baluchestan, involving both light and heavy weapons. Both sides later tried to downplay the incident.
In a significant move, just a day after the incident, the Afghan Foreign Ministry deputed a seven-member team of diplomats to take charge of the Afghan Embassy in Tehran.
Before the March altercation, clashes were reported between Iranian border guards and the Taliban in the same province last July.
At least one Taliban soldier was killed in the exchange, according to Afghan media.
Taliban authorities did not publicly comment on the cause of the fight, but Iran’s media claimed the Taliban attempted to unfurl their flag in an area outside Afghan territory.
In April last year, a key border crossing between Iran and Afghanistan was closed after a bout of violence.
That erupted after Iranian border guards objected to the Taliban paving a road in the border zone in Islam Qala, a district of Afghanistan’s western Herat province.
In December 2021, there were heavy border clashes in northeastern Iran, which were triggered as Tehran was constructing a border wall in the Shagalak area that connects with Afghanistan’s Nimroz province.
What is the water dispute?
Iran and Afghanistan have long been at odds over shared water resources, mainly from the Hirmand River, also known as the Helmand River.
The river originates in the Hindu Kush mountain range near Kabul and flows into Iran’s Hamoun wetlands in Sistan-Baluchestan after covering a long stretch of 700 miles.
Iran has accused successive Afghan governments of restricting the flow of water from the river by constructing dams, claims denied by Afghan authorities.
Under a 1973 water-sharing agreement, Afghanistan is supposed to allow an average of 820 million cubic meters of water per year to Iran.
However, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan affairs, recently said only 27 million cubic meters of water reached Iran last year.
Environmental experts say the limited flow has turned the Hamoun wetlands, Iran’s third-largest lake and a lifeline for people in the country’s southeast, into an ecological disaster.
Iranian authorities have reiterated that the restricted flow is because of damming by Afghanistan, which they say is in breach of the water-sharing agreement.
What do they say about the water issue?
The water dispute came back into the spotlight after Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi recently called on the Taliban to give Tehran its “water rights.”
During a visit to Sistan-Baluchestan this month, Raisi warned the Taliban to take his words “seriously” and act “immediately.”
He also instructed two Iranian ministries, foreign affairs and energy, to pursue the matter with Afghan authorities, indicating the mounting pressure that his own government is facing to resolve the matter.
Raisi’s envoy Qomi has said the issue “will be settled this year,” while Iran’s Energy Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian asserted that Tehran is taking “serious steps” to ensure proper implementation of the treaty.
Taliban officials, on the other hand, contend that Afghanistan has been acting in accordance with the agreement.
Matiullah Abid, a spokesman for the Energy and Water Ministry, said water was allocated to Iran last year “based on the treaty,” according to a Tolo News report.
A Taliban commission set up for the matter has backed the 1973 agreement as the solution to the issue, saying it is “respectful” and can ensure that “everyone can receive their rights,” the report said.
The issue has also dominated diplomatic discourse between the two countries.
Last month, Iranian Foreign Minister Amir-Abdollahian and his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi held discussions on the sidelines of a regional conference in Uzbekistan.
Amir-Abdollahian said last week that Tehran has communicated to the Taliban that the dispute “must be followed through a legal framework.”
