Iran International
A conservative daily in Tehran has accused the Taliban of deliberately withholding water to pressure Iran, urging the government to use diplomatic, economic and other tools to punish the group.
"The Taliban are intentionally cutting water flows to Iran," the Jomhouri Eslami newspaper said earlier this week in an editorial titled "End Taliban’s Impudence", warning against what it called the inaction of Iranian officials in the face of the Taliban’s “hostile conduct.”
The newspaper described Afghanistan’s now officially inaugurated Pashdan Dam as the Taliban’s “second major water blow to Iran” after refusing to deliver Iran’s allotted share of the Helmand River (Hirmand in Persian) in recent years.
Satellite images in March showed that Afghanistan was diverting the water into its Gowd-i zerreh salt flat despite promises.
Afghan dams cutting Iran's water supply
According to Khorasan newspaper, the diversion of the Harirud River to fill the Pashdan Dam in Herat Province has led to the drying up of the Doosti Dam on the Iran–Turkmenistan border—the main drinking water source for Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city.
The 1973 Helmand River Treaty grants Iran an average flow of 26 cubic meters per second (around 820 million cubic meters annually), though drought conditions allow for reductions.
The Kamal Khan Dam, inaugurated in March 2021 under President Ashraf Ghani, fueled Iranian fears of reduced Helmand flows. Kabul framed the project as a sovereign right, while Tehran viewed it as a treaty violation.
The Helmand once sustained the Hamoun wetlands, Iran’s third-largest lake system. Prolonged droughts, damming, and contested releases have dried the wetlands, devastating Sistan-and-Baluchestan.
The construction of Pashdan Dam, the second Afghan dam affecting Iran, began before the Taliban retook Kabul. Seeking legitimacy through visible projects, the Taliban completed the dam and began impoundment in December 2024, with full inauguration announced a few days ago.
Criticism of Tehran’s 'concessions'
Jomhouri Eslami also accused successive Iranian governments, especially that of late President Ebrahim Raisi, of overlooking Taliban hostility while offering “political and economic concessions.”
“Out of fear of public opinion, they could not formally recognize the Taliban’s illegitimate rule in Afghanistan but still offered it all the privileges normally reserved for a recognized government,” the paper wrote.
The editorial charged that by remaining silent on water disputes, Iranian authorities have “encouraged the Taliban’s boldness.”
It said it is “not calling for harsh measures,” but urging political and economic pressure, alongside tighter control over unauthorized Afghan migrants, to restrain the group.
Iran-Taliban relations since 2021
When the Taliban retook Kabul in August 2021, Iran pursued a pragmatic policy: avoiding formal recognition but maintaining contacts to manage trade, refugees, border security, and above all, water.
During the Kamal Khan Dam’s inauguration in 2021, Ashraf Ghani suggested that Afghanistan might “trade water for oil.” Since then, Iranian media have suggested that the Taliban, too, is using water as a bargaining chip—pressuring Tehran to recognize its government.
In January 2025, Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi became the first Iranian foreign minister in eight years to visit Kabul, seeking to address refugees, border tensions, and Helmand treaty obligations. The visit underscored how water disputes now dominate the bilateral agenda.
Jomhouri Eslami described Araghchi’s visit to Kabul as a “grave diplomatic mistake,” criticizing the government for ignoring what it suggested was deliberate desiccation of Mashhad’s primary water supply.
The government of President Masoud Pezeshkian has stepped up deportations of undocumented Afghans, with more than 1 million expelled since January. The Taliban have condemned the expulsions as violations of both international norms and Islamic principles.
However, the two sides have also engaged in pragmatic cooperation despite tensions. A recent report claimed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard got a leaked British Ministry of Defense database from the Taliban, hoping to use it to detain suspects as bargaining chips in nuclear talks while the Taliban seeks recognition as Afghanistan’s rulers.
The Telegraph reported on Thursday that the Taliban are transferring three Afghans suspected of spying for Britain to Iran. The move is part of the secret agreement between the two governments to coordinate arrests of Afghans who worked with British forces.
“Suspending enrichment is the American prescription in this statement,” Khatami told worshippers at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini Mosalla, according to state media.
He added: “Nuclear energy is the energy of the future, and people have repeatedly said nuclear energy is the nation’s inalienable right.”
Khatami also rejected the manifesto’s suggestion of direct talks with Washington, saying: “How can we negotiate with America, which martyred General Soleimani, attacked our country, violated all international agreements, and struck our nuclear centers?”
Iran’s Reform Front has urged sweeping political and foreign policy changes, including a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment, release of political prisoners, and direct negotiations with Washington in return for sanctions relief. The reformist push has drawn fierce backlash from conservatives.
“The Iranian people will never surrender to America — hayhat minna al-dhilla,” he said, invoking a famous phrase from Shi’ite Islam Imam Hussein’s sermon on the day of Ashura, which means ‘far be it from us to accept humiliation.’ The expression, rooted in Hussein’s rejection of submission to Ibn Ziyad in 680 AD, has come to symbolize choosing death with dignity over life in disgrace.
Citing remarks by Ali Khamenei last year, Khatami said: “The Leader has already said negotiations with America are neither rational nor honorable. This statement recommends dishonor, and the Iranian nation will not accept such a humiliating recipe.”
Khatami further denounced the reformist document as divisive, calling it a “black letter that translates Netanyahu’s words into Persian.”
He argued that Iranians had voted 47 times since the 1979 revolution and dismissed claims of repression of dissent, insisting that media and social networks were active and free.
A recent survey conducted by a Netherlands-based institute found that the majority of Iranians would vote for either a regime change or a structural transition away from the Islamic Republic.
Mohammad-Hassan Ghadiri Abyaneh, Iran’s former envoy to Australia, said: “The assassination of members of the Assembly of Experts is part of Israel’s plan, and the individual favored by the enemies to head the system is Hassan Rouhani.”
The Assembly of Experts is an 88-member clerical body empowered to appoint Iran’s Supreme Leader. Its members, elected for eight-year terms, are chosen from candidates vetted by the Guardian Council, whose members are themselves appointed directly or indirectly by the Supreme Leader.
Abyaneh added, “They want to put someone like Rouhani at the top of the system in order to fragment Iran, and the fragmentation of Iran is among Rouhani’s goals.”
He also accused reformist politician Behzad Nabavi of advising President Masoud Pezeshkian to disrupt the economy deliberately to create leverage for negotiations with the United States.
He did not present any evidence for his claims.
His comments come as Rouhani and Iran’s Reform Front have urged sweeping political and foreign policy changes, including a temporary suspension of uranium enrichment, release of political prisoners, and direct negotiations with Washington in return for sanctions relief.
Rouhani said earlier in the month, “There is no way to save the country except for all of us to become servants of the people — to recognize that sovereignty belongs to the people.”
The reformist push has drawn fierce backlash from conservatives, with some likening it to a 2003 reformist manifesto that ended in arrests and bans.
Tasnim, an outlet linked to Iran’s Guards, warned that reformists’ calls for sweeping policy changes resembled a “Gorbachev moment,” arguing such concessions to foreign narratives risk weakening national interests and repeating mistakes that led to the Soviet Union’s collapse.
European powers have warned that unless Tehran resumes nuclear talks by the end of August, they are prepared to trigger the UN’s sanctions “snapback” mechanism, which could restore Security Council penalties.
