By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

Calm has supposedly returned to the Iran-Afghanistan border, but at what cost?

Why did the miscreants who suddenly, without any provocation, open fire at Iran’s Sasouli border police station, martyring two unsuspecting border guards and injuring some others, violated the Iran’s territorial integrity.

Were the attackers drug smugglers or did they belong to the dastardly Daesh terrorist outfit which receives direct orders from the US?

We have no accurate reports yet from the other side of the border and the casualties inflicted on the attackers who fled the area when the Iranian border personnel retaliated with heavy gunfire.

Anyway we expect the Taliban militia ruling Afghanistan to provide Iran with a convincing report that the attackers who ought to be identified and punished were not its personnel and there was no ulterior motive behind the criminal incident at a time when the 1973 treaty continues to be violated by Kabul with the required flow of water from the Helmand River to Sistan-Baluchestan illegally stopped.

Tehran has made it clear that the Taliban bear responsibility for the extensive damage to agriculture, livestock, and the daily life of the people of the Iranian border area who have been deprived of their share of waters.

The Islamic Republic’s request to allow a team of technical experts to visit Afghanistan to inspect the situation of the river, has not yet been given a positive, and now comes this terroristic border incident.

Senior Iranian officials, including the President, have made it clear that the Taliban bear responsibility for the lack of water flow to the Iranian border area, and have warned of dire consequences.

Any delay in this crucial matter which is negatively affecting the life of the border people will not be tolerated for long, and Iran has no other choice but to take due measures to resolve the issue, whether the Taliban like it or not.

Hopefully, the vexing issue will be resolved and the brotherly people of Iran and Afghanistan will continue their cooperation in all fields.

In the meantime, the terrorists who violated the Iranian border should be identified and punished and blood money given to the martyrs, if not Iran will be forced to take unilateral measures against what are definitely US-Zionist agents.