Nfter increasing political tensions between Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan, a gun battle broke out at the border. Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday that border officials reacted decisively to a Taliban attack from Nimrus province. The militant Islamist Taliban did not comment on the incident. According to IRNA, two border guards were killed and two civilians injured in the skirmish.
There have been repeated incidents at the borders of neighboring countries since the Islamists took power in the summer of 2021. In the past, both sides usually spoke of misunderstandings; There is no fundamental dispute about the course of the 921-kilometer border.
Recently, however, a dispute broke out over the water of the border river Helmand. Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi threatened the Taliban government and urged Kabul to honor a decades-old pact on water use that guarantees Iran a minimum annual water supply. The river, which is more than 1,000 kilometers long, is being dammed on the Afghan side in the Helmand province of the same name to generate electricity and irrigate agriculture.
The Taliban said drought and climate change are making it impossible for authorities to allow adequate water to flow to the neighboring country. Just days later, Iran’s IRNA news agency released satellite photos and contradicted the group. For years, researchers have been warning of an increase in droughts in the region, which is particularly hard hit by the consequences of climate change.
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