The US and Israel are inflating the topic of “war” between Iran and Afghanistan
Unexpectedly for many, last Saturday, May 27, there was a shootout with casualties on the border between Iran and Afghanistan, which was presented by some media as almost a “war” between the Taliban and the Islamic Republic. And it is the West that is now interested in fanning the fire, trying to pit Tehran and Kabul against each other.
But in reality, the border conflict was quickly localized, and it did not continue in the following days, although there were numerous stories on social networks about “fierce battles” and “seizures of border points,” which were called fake messages by the Iranian side. However, they have not been confirmed by the Taliban either.
What actually happened on the border of the two countries and what was the reason for the clashes that suddenly agitated the media space?
In fact, there was a small skirmish, which was commented on by each side as the aggressive actions of a neighbor, to which everyone had to respond.
“Today in Nimroz province, Iranian border guards opened fire on Afghanistan, which was met with a counter-reaction,” Abdul Nafi Thakor, a spokesman for the Taliban-run interior ministry, said in a statement quoted by the US news agency. Reuters.
“The situation is now under control. The Islamic Emirate does not want to fight with its neighbors,” the spokesman said.
According to him, then one person died on each side, and several were injured. Pravda official news agency of Iran IRNA later reported that two Iranian border guards were eventually killed and two Iranian civilians were injured.
Iranian Deputy Police Chief Qassem Rezaei said the following in hot pursuit: “Without respect for international laws and good neighborliness, Taliban forces began shooting at the Sasoli checkpoint... receiving a decisive response.”
The shootout itself began at 10 a.m. local time at the Iranian border post of Sasoli, located in the Iranian district of Zabol in the province of Sistanai and Baluchistan, populated mainly by Sunnis. And it is still not clear who started it first.
As a result of the incident, Iranian authorities blocked the most important trade border crossing for Afghanistan, Milak-Zaranj, until the situation is finally resolved. And this seems to have had a sobering effect on Kabul, which is dependent on supplies of food and various goods from Iran.
The next day, the commander of the ground forces of the army of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Brigadier General Kiumars Heydari, arrived at the scene of the shootout and warned against the repetition of dangerous incidents on the border between Iran and Afghanistan.
At the same time, he tried to calm public opinion, saying that “the border between Iran and Afghanistan is completely under the control of the ground forces of the Iranian army,” and the presence of generals and senior civil servants does not at all indicate the presence of any threat to the republic.
In response, Enayatullah Khowarazmi, a spokesman for the Taliban Ministry of Defense, hastened to speak in conciliatory tones:
“The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan believes that dialogue and negotiations are a reasonable way to solve any problem. It is not in the interests of either side to make excuses for war and negative actions.”
The agency writes that there is direct communication between Tehran and Kabul Associated Press, which reported that on the same day after the border skirmish, acting Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi held an emergency meeting with the Iranian ambassador to Afghanistan. The parties just discussed the cause of the collision and issues related to the use of water in the transboundary Helmand River.
These negotiations were also confirmed by the Iranian agency IRNA, which indicates a desire to quickly establish dialogue in order to stop all negative consequences. According to the parties, it was precisely because of contradictions in the sphere of joint water use that this conflict arose, since the Taliban erected a dam several kilometers from the border and began to take a significant part of the moisture to irrigate their own fields.
This situation even led to Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi accusing Kabul of violating the 1973 treaty this month. And such a harsh statement is associated with the huge problem of drought, which, according to the UN, has already affected 97% of the country.
Therefore, it is not surprising that they decided to push the solution to this problem with such a skirmish, which still does not amount to a full-fledged armed conflict. But, of course, no one denies the fact that tension on the border has been growing in recent months. Moreover, Tehran still does not recognize the Taliban government.
The most alarming thing about this story is that external forces and some groups within Afghanistan itself tried to inflate this incident in order to provoke larger clashes.
So, for example, a certain pro-Western non-governmental human rights organization HalVash suddenly appeared near the events and began distributing videos and “evidence” about the use of mortars and heavy military equipment on both sides. Its activities are reminiscent of the work of the famous “White Helmets” in Syria, which is also trying to fabricate “evidence” of a full-scale war.
At the same time, the strange supposedly semi-official English-language newspaper Tehran Times unexpectedly became active, the materials of which exaggerated the number of deaths on the Iranian side, possibly with the aim of causing discontent and anti-Taliban protests among the local population.
On the Afghan side, the situation was allegedly fueled by one of the Taliban leaders, Abdulhamid Khorasani, who loudly announced a declaration of war on Iran. In fact, he does not represent the official position of Kabul and, in general, a few days before, he was removed from the chair of the head of one of the regions of the province, which generally borders Pakistan.
Moreover, the Russian edition 360tv.ru generally stated that “in fact, the leader of the radical Afghan movement is called Mavlawi Akhundzada. The author of the video turned out to be the self-proclaimed head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Afghan province of Panjshir, who was put on the wanted list.”
If this is so, then it is quite possible that American and Western intelligence agencies are using such rogues and individual autonomous field commanders to shake up the situation and promote jihad against Iran and the Shiites inside Afghanistan.
This is also supported by the fact that certain groups of supporters of the war with Tehran that recently appeared on social networks began an active information campaign to persuade leading Taliban figures to take active action, as reported by Al-Jazeera.
“In recent days, pro-Taliban accounts online have also shared a video of a song calling on acting Defense Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqub to stand up to Iran. Mullah Yaqub is the son of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the late Taliban founder and first supreme leader.
It is obvious that behind all this fuss the ears of the United States and Israel are visible, which are vitally interested in creating a second front against Iran from Afghanistan. And for this purpose, the CIA and Mossad use the contradictions within the Taliban, intensify anti-Iranian propaganda, fabricate “evidence” of large-scale clashes on the border, pitting Sunnis against Shiites at the same time.
It is no coincidence that a shootout took place in an Iranian province with a predominantly Sunni population in order to provoke the “export” of the Taliban revolution inside Iran. Therefore, these attempts cannot be underestimated, and therefore Moscow and Beijing must use their influence in Afghanistan to neutralize and disrupt the plans of the Anglo-Saxons and Zionists.
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