TEHRAN -- Iran’s foreign
minister has called on Taliban rulers in Afghanistan to remove “artificial barriers” to the realization of the Islamic Republic’s water rights.
Hussein Amir-Abdollahian made the remarks on Thursday during a phone call with acting Afghan foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
Amir-Abdollahian said an energy ministry delegation will travel to Afghanistan to discuss Iran’s water rights from the Hirmand River.
Iran and Afghanistan have been locked in the protracted dispute for decades. The two sides signed a water-sharing accord in 1973, under which Afghanistan pledged to deliver an average of 820 million cubic meters of water per annum to Iran.
The Islamic Republic has repeatedly criticized Afghanistan for failing to honor the agreement.
What has made the dispute bitter is the construction of many hydroelectric projects on the river, most importantly the Kamal Khan dam in Nimrouz province, and the Kajaki dam 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Kandahar province.
On Wednesday, Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi called for “serious” pursuit of Iran’s water rights from Hirmand.
Raisi instructed the country’s foreign and energy ministers to take up the matter as a priority, asserting that “a popular government would, under no pretexts, back down from pursuing the nation’s rights.”
Amir-Abdollahian pointed to the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan’s dependence on Hirmand, saying if the issue is not “expeditiously and seriously” resolved, it will have an adverse effect on the other areas of cooperation between the countries.
The Afghan official, for his part, described relations between Iran and Afghanistan as “brotherly and aimed at helping the Afghan nation.”
“We are committed” to allowing Iran to exercise its water right,” he added, proposing the formation of a joint technical and operational team that could restore the water flow towards the Iranian territory.