Afghan Taliban authorities and neighboring Iran said deadly clashes between their border security forces had subsided on Sunday and the two sides had started talks to ease tensions.
Fighting broke out in Afghanistan’s border province of Nimroz on Saturday, killing two Iranian security forces and a Taliban border guard, officials from both countries said.
Both sides traded blame for the fierce cross-border gunfire that ratcheted up Iran’s tensions with Afghanistan over water resources.
On Sunday, Iran’s state-run news agency IRNA quoted a senior official as saying that “the situation is under control” in the conflict zone near the Sasuli border post in Iran’s Sistan-Balochistan province.
SEE ALSO: Iran exchanges heavy gunfire with Taliban on Afghan border, escalating tensions over water rights
Alireza Marhamati, the deputy provincial governor, said that “local Iranian and Afghan officials have been negotiating the cause of the clashes and agreed to continue their talks.”
A spokesman for Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that his government “does not want to fight with its neighbors” and insisted Iranian forces started the conflict, prompting Afghan border forces to retaliate.
Bilateral tensions have recently escalated over Iranian allegations that the Taliban are violating a 1973 water-sharing treaty between Tehran and Kabul by blocking water flow from the Helmand River, which flows from Afghanistan into Iran’s arid eastern border regions.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, during a visit to the border province, urged the Taliban to respect the treaty that provides for shared water resources and access to water level monitoring. Raisi warned the de facto Afghan rulers against violating the deal and vowed to defend Iran’s water rights.
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan believes that dialogue and negotiation is a good way to solve any problem. Apologies for war and negative actions do not serve the interests of either party,” Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Enayatullah Khowarazmi wrote on his official Twitter account.
According to the United Nations, Afghanistan and Iran have been suffering from a prolonged drought and drought conditions have worsened over the past decade.
Last week, Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi responded to threats from the Iranian leadership that Kabul was committed to the water agreement.
In a televised speech, Muttaqi urged Tehran not to overlook the region’s drought and try to resolve the issue in “personal talks rather than making noise” about the media.
“We also expect Iranian officials to adjust their expectations of the treaty and base the criteria for judgments and comments on the provisions contained in the treaty,” he added.
Analysts warned that Afghanistan and the region as a whole could hardly afford another conflict.
Torek Farhadi, a former Afghan official, said the Taliban would avoid a standoff with Iran. He pointed out that after 40 years of war, Afghanistan is fragile and four million Afghans are living as refugees on Iranian soil.
“Of course, skirmishes and then a war with Iran can start, but soon Afghanistan will become the theater of proxy wars with Tehran,” Farhadi said. “Arms and ammunition will flow into Afghanistan to fight Iran, but the fighters would be Afghan youth and the destruction will take place in Afghanistan. Not a good perspective.”
Since the Taliban took power nearly two years ago, Iran has maintained its embassy in Kabul along with nearly two dozen neighboring and regional countries, but has failed to recognize the new Afghan government or the world at large.
The Taliban’s restrictions on women’s right to education and work, as well as the lack of political inclusivity in their government, have prevented the international community from granting them legitimacy.