Fars News Agency strongly objected to a tweet by Iran’s foreign minister criticizing the Taliban, alleging that it could have dire consequences for bilateral ties.
In an unattributed commentary entitled “Critique To Foreign Minister’s Recent Remarks” , the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) linked news agency said Wednesday that Hossein Amir-Abdollahian’s tweet could provoke “unfortunate and irreparable events that may cause challenges to the old friendship between the peoples of Iran and Afghanistan.”
In his tweet on August 8, the Iranian foreign minister had accused the Taliban of committing a murderous act in August 1998 by attacking the Iranian consulate in Mazar-e Sharif during which they killed eight diplomats and a journalist. In fact, Iran’s Journalists Day on August 8 was designated to honor that journalist.
“It is very surprising that despite several meetings with Taliban officials and hosting them, the minister of foreign affairs is unaware of the sensitivities of these matters and the costs that such statements may impose on the government and people of Iran,” Fars wrote and claimed that a breakaway Taliban faction controlled by Pakistani intelligence had been responsible for the Mazar-e Sharif attack.
In another tweet seven hours later, apparently after he was chastised behind the scenes by the military, Amir-Abdollahian tried to somehow appease his critics, but this appears not to have satisfied the IRGC which the Taliban a potential ally against the United States.
In his second tweet the Iranian foreign minister claimed that he had been told by the acting Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, Amir Khan Muttaqi, at their first meeting, that the Taliban condemned the 1998 attack on the Iranian consulate, when asked to clarify the Taliban’s position regarding the matter.
"There is no relationship between the Taliban of today and them. We condemn that inhuman act," Muttaqi said according to Amir-Abdollahian.
Fars also claimed on Thursday that according to sources close to the Taliban negotiating team in Doha, the US Special Representative Thomas West has repeatedly demanded that the Taliban act as a destabilizing force against the Islamic Republic of Iran in return for the release of part of Afghanistan’s blocked assets. Allegedly, the Taliban turned down the demand.
A London-based Afghan political activist told Iran International that the Islamic Republic of Iran has now realized its calculations were wrong and the Taliban would gradually increase their capabilities to act against Tehran, no matter how much the Islamic Republic compromises with them.
It had been obvious from the beginning that the religious ideological difference would not allow a stable relationship between the two and “the honeymoon period” would end sooner or later, he stressed.
Tehran was the third country after Pakistan and Russia that handed over Afghanistan’s embassy to the Taliban following the fall of President Ashraf Ghani in 2021 and has more or less maintained good relations with the Taliban despite several border skirmishes.
Tensions have been simmering between the Islamic Republic and the Taliban in the past few months over Iran’s share of the waters of Hirmand (Helmand in Afghanistan) which the Taliban are withholding by building dams.
In June Amir-Abdollahian said Tehran does not recognize the Taliban and called for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan. He referred to the water dispute, stressing that any dispute had to be resolved through legal channels as stated in the 1973 water treaty between the two countries. Iran's foreign ministry also strongly refuted Taliban’s claim over lack of enough water due to draught to release Iran's share of the river’s waters.