Photo: Iran's Foreign Ministry

“New, positive steps” agreed on Helmand River water rights, Iran says

Naseer Kanaani, Iran’s spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has said that the Taliban and Iran have agreed upon new and positive steps toward water rights, amid rising tensions in recent months which both sides said eased last month.

The Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Kanaani said in a press conference on June 12 that both sides have recently had a constructive discussion over the Helmand River on which Iran’s southeastern regions heavily rely for farmland irrigation.

“It has been agreed in the meeting that Afghanistan will take new and positive steps regarding the Helmand River water rights,” The spokesperson was quoted saying to IRNA.

“New technical steps will soon be implemented… We hope the neighboring country will deliver on their commitments with good faith.”

Kanaani added that the people in the Sistan-Balochistan province have rights over the Helmand River water and delivering this right will bolster bilateral cooperation between Kabul and Tehran.

The Iranian spokesperson did not elaborate further on the meeting.

Taliban officials have not commented so far.

The dispute between the two countries has ebbed and flowed several times mainly around the Helmand River, whose waters emerge from the Hindu Kush mountains in east-central Afghanistan and flow southwest before releasing into the Helmand swamps on the border with Iran.

In May, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accused Kabul of violating a 1973 treaty that grants Iranians the right to use 22 cubic meters of water per second to flow into Iran, an accusation Taliban officials have denied.

Last week, it was reported that Taliban authorities released Helmand River water from the Kamal Khan Dam into Iran. However, Taliban authorities have not officially confirmed it, and neither has Iran.