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There is a dispute between the Taliban and Iran over the water of this river
Photograph:
Peter Langer; / Design Pics / IMAGO
After increasing political tensions between Iran and the Taliban in Afghanistan, a firefight has broken out on the border. Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reported on Saturday that border officials had responded decisively to an attack by the Taliban from Nimrus province. Initially, there was no information about possible victims of the firefight. The militant Islamist Taliban did not comment on the incident.
Incidents have repeatedly occurred on the border of neighboring countries since the Islamists took power in the summer of 2021. In the past, both sides mostly spoke of misunderstandings; there is no fundamental dispute about the course of the 921-kilometre-long border.
Dispute over border river
Recently, however, a conflict broke out over the water of the border river Helmand. Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi threatened the Taliban government and called on Kabul to abide by a decades-old pact on the use of water, which guarantees Iran a minimum annual amount of water. 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.
The Taliban said drought and climate change made it impossible for authorities to get enough water flowing to the neighboring country. Only a few days later, Iran's IRNA news agency published satellite photos and disagreed. Researchers have been warning for years of an increase in droughts in the region, which is particularly hard hit by the consequences of the climate crisis.
evh/dpa