File photograph: An Iranian flag is raised on a road in Tehran, Iran, on February 3, 2023. Photo credit score: Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency through Reuters
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) – The Taliban and Iran engaged in a fierce gun battle close to the Islamic Republic’s border with Afghanistan on Saturday, sharply escalating tensions between the 2 nations amid a dispute over water rights.
Iran’s state-run IRNA information company cited the nation’s deputy police chief, General Qasem Rezaei, as saying the Taliban accused the Taliban of opening hearth on the border between Iran’s Sistan-Baluchestan province and Afghanistan’s Nimroz province on Saturday morning. did. IRNA stated Iran inflicted “heavy casualties and extreme injury.”
Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled media didn’t acknowledge the preventing.
Halvash, an advocacy group that studies on points affecting the Baluch folks of Sunni-majority Sistan and Baluchestan provinces, stated native residents stated the preventing occurred close to the Khan district of Nimroz. Some folks within the space introduced they’d fled the violence.
A video posted on-line purporting to be from the world included the crackle of machine gun hearth within the distance. Halbash later posted a picture of what seemed to be the stays of a mortar shell and stated: “Heavy weapons and mortars are getting used.” A video later posted by Halvash purported to indicate Iranian forces firing mortars.
The clashes got here after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned the Taliban earlier this month to not violate Iran’s water rights to the Helmand River. Raisi’s feedback have been among the strongest statements but on Iran’s long-standing considerations about water.
Drought has been an issue in Iran for about 30 years, however it has worsened over the previous decade, based on the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Iran’s Meteorological Organization says an estimated 97 p.c of the nation is at present going through some extent of drought.
The Taliban occupied Afghanistan in August 2021 as US and NATO forces have been within the remaining weeks of withdrawing from the nation after 20 years of struggle. Since then, Afghanistan has develop into the world’s most repressive nation for girls and ladies, who’re stripped of nearly all fundamental rights and starvation stays widespread, based on the United Nations.
Read extra: UN meals company says Afghanistan urgently wants $800 million
Although Iran has in a roundabout way accepted the Taliban authorities, it has maintained relations with Afghanistan’s new rulers. The Iranian authorities additionally known as on the Taliban to permit ladies and ladies to attend college.
Early Saturday morning, the Taliban’s appearing international minister, Amir Khan al-Muttaqi, met with Iran’s particular envoy to Afghanistan to debate water rights within the Helmand River, based on a tweet from Afghan Foreign Ministry official Zia Ahmad. IRNA confirmed the talks and stated: “Issues between the 2 nations will likely be higher resolved by way of dialogue.”
But in any other case tensions are excessive. Another video just lately posted on-line purportedly reveals a confrontation between Iranian forces and the Taliban as Iranian development employees attempt to strengthen the border between the 2 nations.
In current days, on-line pro-Taliban accounts have additionally shared movies with songs calling on appearing protection minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob to face as much as Iran. Yaqoob is the son of Mohamed Omar, the Taliban’s late founder and first supreme chief.
“We are the federal government and we now have the ability,” the track sings. “Our chief Yaqoob will likely be in opposition to Iran, in any other case we’re not a republican authorities. We will not be slaves. Our chief Yaqoob will likely be in opposition to Iran.”
Associated Press writers Rahim Faiz in Islamabad and Amir Vahdat in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
Left: File photograph: The Iranian flag is raised on a road in Tehran, Iran, on February 3, 2023. Photo credit score: Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency through Reuters