By: Abubakar Siddique
During an official see to Islamic Republic of Iran inward May, Tariq Shah Bahrami, Afghanistan’s defense forcefulness minister, received assurances that Tehran was fully committed to helping Kabul struggle terrorism. It was a welcome guarantee, coming every bit Afghan forces faced a fresh onslaught from the Taliban, which typically mounts an annual offensive inward April. Within months, however, the hope appeared to band hollow every bit Afghan officials increasingly blamed Islamic Republic of Iran for the fighting inward Afghanistan’s western Farah province.
A Common Enemy
Speaking afterwards his coming together amongst Bahrami on May 13, Iranian Army Chief of Staff Mohammad Hossein Baqeri declared that Tehran as well as Kabul shared a mutual purpose.
“The shared backgrounds betwixt the 2 countries of Islamic Republic of Iran as well as Afghanistan, including religion as well as language, have got brought them together inward such a means that no obstruction tin mail away undermine their unopen relations, especially inward combatting the terrorist groups,” he said (Khaama Press, May 13).
However, every bit Bahrami gathered assurances as well as pledges of back upwards from the clerical regime’s senior officials inward Tehran, a battle was brewing along the nearly 1,000 kilometer-long border betwixt the countries. Hundreds, mayhap thousands of Taliban fighters descended on the western urban gist of Farah, which serves every bit the majuscule of the rural Farah province.
Heavily armed Taliban fighters breached Farah’s defenses inward the early on hours of May 15. By mid-day, they had overrun large swathes of the town, torched several regime edifice as well as killed as well as captured regime soldiers, policemen as well as pro-government militia members.
“The incompetent defense forcefulness minister, the caput of the Directorate of National Security [the Afghan cloak-and-dagger service] as well as Mr. President, the residents of Farah are utterly disappointed amongst yous because nosotros were nearly overrun yesteryear Iranian as well as Pakistani spies,” said Humayon Shahzada, a militia fellow member who fought inward the battle (Tolo News, May 15).
In Kabul, Afghan interior ministry building spokesman Najib Danish was to a greater extent than diplomatic. “What happened today has unusual links but it’s soundless non clear which province is involved,” he said.
The clashes continued good into the next day, fifty-fifty afterwards Afghan officials claimed to have got repulsed the Taliban assault yesteryear sending inward special forces troops as well as calling on NATO airpower.
Iranian Influence
Provincial Governor Abdul Basir Salangi claimed that to a greater extent than than 300 Taliban fighters were killed inward the fighting, but local lawmakers, residents, as well as safety officials said that Taliban fighters emerged from hiding to mountain a fresh assault on Afghan safety forces belatedly on May sixteen (Gandhara RFE/RL, May 17). Most officials, however, pointed to a unusual manus orchestrating the fighting, as well as many believe that lying behind this violence is non ideology but command of local resources.
“The structure of the Bakhshabad dam inward Farah as well as the structure of ‘golden lines’ such every bit the TAPI [the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India] gas pipeline that goes through 3 Farah districts are non acceptable to our neighbor,” Governor Salangi told journalists, inward what was a clear reference to Islamic Republic of Iran (Tolo News, May 16).
A provincial constabulary chief, Fazel Ahmad Sherzad, was to a greater extent than explicit. “Iran direct interferes … insecurity inward Farah is inward the involvement of Islamic Republic of Iran … Islamic Republic of Iran is fully funding as well as equipping the Taliban inward Farah,” he said (1TV News, May 16).
Senior Afghan officials, too every bit General John Nicholson, the plough over U.S. as well as NATO commander inward Afghanistan, appear to dorsum these assertions coming from Farah. During a May nineteen see to the province, Afghan interior as well as defense forcefulness ministers, the Afghan spy principal as well as General Nicholson listened to angry local leaders who demanded accountability as well as blamed Islamic Republic of Iran for the attacks. Last year, senior Afghan military machine officials claimed to have got evidence that Islamic Republic of Iran was providing weapons to the Taliban inward western provinces bordering Iran.
Water War
Without naming Iran, Defense Minister Bahrami made it absolutely clear that Kabul sees Tehran behind the unrest. “Farah’s state of war is an absolute as well as a precise state of war over H2O management,” he said. “Since Salma dam completion [in the neighboring Herat Province], as well as an early on locomote launch on Bakhshabad dam, nosotros have got been inward this hostility, but it is our correct to create out our water,” Bahrami emphasized (Pajhwok News, May 20).
Water appears to survive 1 of the factors prompting Tehran’s Shia clerical regime to forthwith back upwards Afghanistan’s hardline Sunni Taliban movement, despite nearly going to state of war against it inward the 1990s.
“We cannot rest indifferent to the upshot [water dams], which is patently damaging our environment,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declared final year. “Construction of several dams inward Afghanistan, such every bit Kajaki, Kamal Khan, Salma, as well as others inward the northward as well as S of Afghanistan, demeanor upon our Khorasan as well as Sistan-Baluchistan provinces,” he said (Gandhara RFE/RL, July 31, 2017).
Back inward belatedly 2001, Tehran had welcomed as well as supported the U.S.-led military machine functioning that toppled the Taliban regime. As virtually NATO troops withdrew from Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan inward belatedly 2014, Tehran recalibrated its approach as well as began extending covert back upwards to the Taliban. The emergence of Islamic State (IS) militants inward Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan inward 2015 cemented this alliance to an extent that the Taliban leader, Akhtar Mohammad Mansur, was killed inward a U.S. airstrike inward southwestern Islamic Republic of Pakistan inward May 2016, every bit he returned from visiting Iran.
Mansur had publicly warned IS against operating inward Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan inward 2015. It is non a coincidence that IS was never able to flora a foothold inward Afghan provinces bordering Iran. Later that year, Mohammad Reza Behrami, Iran’s envoy inward Kabul, acknowledged that Tehran maintains contacts amongst the Taliban but insisted that the 2 exercise non have got a “real relationship” (Tasnim News Agency, Dec 20, 2016).
In a May nineteen interview amongst Afghanistan’s someone Ariana News TV, Behrami acknowledged that Tehran has contacts amongst the Taliban but rejected that his province supported the fighting inward Farah. “In general, nosotros oppose the [United States’] presence inward whatever of the Islamic countries. It has been clear as well as nosotros have got already announced it,” he said (Ayrana News, May 19). “Regarding Afghanistan, nosotros honor the decisions taken yesteryear Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan officials. We have got reached an understanding amongst Afghan authorities that our respective territory volition non survive used against each other.”
He insisted that all of Tehran’s contacts amongst the Taliban are aimed at supporting Kabul’s efforts to negotiate peace amongst the insurgents. “All regional countries have got such contacts [with the Taliban] … No province has severed this contact. It is because all of us desire to play a positive as well as constructive role … But a few points should survive adhered to inward the efforts [to choose the Taliban to the negotiating table]. First, the regime of Transitional Islamic State of Afghanistan is the main pivot. [Second], government-to-government ties should non survive affected. Third, the negotiations should survive betwixt the regime as well as others,” Behrami said (Ayrana News, May 19).
Tehran’s role inward the Taliban operations inward western Afghanistan, however, appears to have got divided the movement’s leadership. Abdul Qayum Zakir, the erstwhile plough over Taliban military machine commander, was 1 of the get-go Taliban leaders to have got visited Islamic Republic of Iran to flora a covert human relationship amongst Tehran (Jamestown, June 2015). But inward a recent pamphlet attributed to him, he criticized the Farah offensive, declaring it to survive an independent maiden of Mullah Manan Liwanai, the Taliban commander inward neighboring Helmand province, as well as 1 that had non been approved yesteryear the movement’s leadership.
“The recent clashes, which happened inward Farah, have got caused huge casualties on the mujahideen [Taliban], as well as this willful activity was carried out yesteryear the Taliban’s governor for Helmand, Mullah Manan Liwani,” the pamphlet said (Arman-e Milli, translated yesteryear BBC Monitoring, May 27).
Outlook
Kabul sees Tehran’s influence behind the recent clashes inward Afghanistan’s Farah province, amongst Islamic Republic of Iran working the Taliban to its wages to secure command of local resources, peculiarly water.
It is probable that the U.S. withdrawal from the Islamic Republic of Iran nuclear bargain inward May has given Tehran an added incentive to back upwards the Taliban inward Afghanistan, inward the hope of putting farther pressure level on Washington.
Going forward, Tehran’s Shia clerical regime as well as Afghanistan’s Sunni Taliban insurgents are unlikely to boom a long-term feasible strategic alliance, but covert cooperation betwixt the 2 is expected to play a role inward fomenting insecurity inward western as well as southern Afghanistan, spell posing a continued threat to the U.S. as well as NATO military machine presence inward the country.
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