2023-05-28 00:03:00
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran and the Taliban exchanged intense fire on Saturday on the Islamic republic’s border with Afghanistan, sharply escalating tensions between the two nations over a dispute over rights to water resources.
Iran’s state news agency IRNA quoted the country’s deputy police chief, General Qassem Rezaei, as accusing the Taliban of opening fire first on Saturday morning on the border of Iran’s Sistan and Balochistan province and Afghan province of Nimroz. IRNA claimed that Iran inflicted “heavy casualties and heavy damage.”
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The Taliban-controlled press in Afghanistan did not acknowledge any confrontation.
Activist group HalVash, which reports on issues in the predominantly Sunni province of Sistan and Balochistan, quoted local residents as saying the clash occurred near the Kang district of Nimroz. He said some people in the area had fled the violence.
Videos posted online, presumably from the area, included the sound of machine guns in the distance. HalVash later posted an image of what looked like the remains of a mortar shell, noting that “heavy weapons and mortars were being used.” A later HalVash video purported to show Iranian forces firing a mortar.
“The border forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran will resolutely respond to any border invasion and aggression, and the current Afghan authorities must be held accountable for their excessive actions and actions contrary to international principles,” said Iran’s police chief, General Ahmadreza Radan, quoted by IRNA.
The standoff came following Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi earlier this month warned the Taliban not to infringe on Iran’s water rights in the Helmand river.
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Raisi’s remarks are among the strongest to date related to Iran’s longstanding concerns over water use.
Drought has been a problem for 30 years in Iran and has worsened in the past decade, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
The Iran Meteorological Organization says that around 97% of the country is already facing some level of drought.
The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in August 2021, as US and NATO troops were in the final weeks of their withdrawal from the country following 20 years of war. Since then, Afghanistan has become the world’s most repressive country for women, depriving them of virtually all of their basic rights, according to the UN. Hunger remains endemic.
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Associated Press writers Rahim Faiez in Islamabad and Amir Vahdat in Tehran contributed to this report.
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