Ebrahim Raisi has called on the Taliban in Afghanistan to abide by a decades-old pact on the use of the border river Helmand. The more than 1000-kilometre-long river is dammed on the Afghan side in the Helmand province of the same name to generate electricity and irrigate agriculture.
In Iran, the river flows into Lake Hamun, whose water level fluctuates seasonally and at times even dried up completely. Iran's government is now demanding access to its own experts in Helmand to inspect the water level at the dam.