Remarkable as it may sound, it looks as if a border skirmish this week between Iranian and Afghan border guards, which involved at least three deaths, was about water. This is not the first border clash as tensions grow over scarce water resources between Iran and the 20-month old Taliban regime, although it is the first that is known to have cost lives.
Earlier this month, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi raised the issue of the 1973 water treaty, designed to share access to water from the Helmand river, which flows across the border. He claimed that the Taliban were violating terms of the agreement, under which Afghanistan is committed to allowing 850 million cubic metres of water a year to flow into Iran. New dams to generate electricity and irrigate agriculture have worsened the crisis.
Any international mediation in settling the dispute would involve accepting the Taliban’s authority to discuss Afghanistan’s existing treaties
In what Iran described as a heavy exchange of fire, they have accused Afghan border guards of shooting first.
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