Raisi Assigns Foreign Affairs, Energy Ministers to Pursue Iran's Water Rights

The Ministry of Defense of the Taliban reported that Mawlawi Muzamal and Mawlawi Najibullah, the deputy of the Ministry of Interior and the General Directorate of Intelligence of the Taliban, were also part of the military delegation.

In late July, the Taliban sent thousands of military forces to suppress Mawlawi Mahdi, the only Hazara commander of the group, to Balkhab district of Sar-e-Pul province. Three days after the fierce fighting in Balkhab, the pro-Mahdi forces fled from the district.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aid for Afghanistan (OCHA) announced that at least 27,000 people have been displaced as a result of the three-day war in Balkhab.

Human Rights organizations reported that the Taliban have shot civilians, set people's houses on fire, and killed prisoners in Balkhab district.

Dawran's family called the accusations "baseless" and stressed that he has no connection with the resistance group and has never cooperated with the NRF.

Dawran’s relatives said that he has been imprisoned without any proof and they are worried about his health condition and fate.

Taliban have increased detention of locals on charges of collaboration with the National Resistance Front as clashes between the group and the resistance forces are growing in the northern provinces, particularly in Panjshir and Baghlan.

In a recent report, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) confirmed the torture, arrest, and killing of dozens of people by the Taliban over the 11 months.

In a letter to the UN Secretary-General Antonio Gueterres, the senators asked the UN to take targeted measures to hold the Taliban responsible for its continued abuses of Afghan women and girls’ human rights.

US Senators Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Jim Risch (R-Idaho); Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; in addition to Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) and Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), asked the UN Security Council to re-impose sanctions on the Taliban.

The senators stated that Taliban leadership are allowed to travel freely due to an exemption put in place in 2019, while Afghan women can barely travel outside their own homes due to recent Taliban edicts. Moreover, Taliban leaders have misused the exemption, traveling to Beijing and Moscow in efforts to establish diplomatic ties, they added.

Additionally, they urged the UN to work to ensure the Taliban does not receive a seat at the United Nations when the UN Credentials Committee is scheduled to meet this September to determine diplomatic representation for Afghanistan.

“We must not stand by as the Taliban seeks to erase the human rights of Afghan women and girls. We strongly urge the United Nations to prioritize and advance the human rights of women and girls through all aspects of its work in Afghanistan,” the senators wrote against the backdrop of the Taliban takeover in Afghanistan completing a year soon.

In addition to calling on the UN to ensure its response in Afghanistan protects and advances human rights of women and girls, the senators also pressed for UN humanitarian agencies to maintain a principled approach to aid delivery that is inclusive of female aid works in all sectors and ensures Afghan women and girls are able to equitably access humanitarian aid.

“The new Special Representative of the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) must depart from her predecessor’s approach and elevate the importance of women’s human rights and empowerment within its mandate, including by hiring more Afghan women and ensuring they are a part of political dialogue and negotiations,” they added.

Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban spokesperson had announced in February, that this group fully accepts Iran's claim of water rights.

Iran's Crisis Management Organisation had previously said that the country is vulnerable in the water sector and there is no safe water in Iran, except the sea.

Iran's water rights have always been a source of tension between Tehran and Kabul. Under the Taliban’s reign in the past year, the two countries have even witnessed armed clashes over water issues.

The Iranian Crisis Management Organisation said that according to the 1973 water rights treaty between the two countries, Afghanistan must send 50 cubic meters of water per second from the Helmand River to Iran, but so far not even a single cubic meter of water has been given.

Taliban and Iran recently formed a committee to resolve border issues, including water rights.

The Taliban police in Herat claim that they have killed an "armed robber". However, texts plastered across the body of the man read “the assassin of Mujahedin was punished for his deeds”.

A statement from the Taliban in Herat stated that the group’s forces encountered armed robbers during patrol operations in Herat city.

After taking control of Afghanistan, the Taliban has displayed the bodies of several executed men in a number of provinces including Herat, Nimroz, and Nangarhar.

The Taliban’s act has garnered criticism and that’s why, the group's cabinet decided that Taliban members should avoid displaying the faces of "criminals" and the bodies of executed people without a court order.

Despite this decision of the Taliban cabinet, the members of this group have indulged in displaying the bodies of the people they had executed on charges of being members of the Islamic State-Khurasan (IS-K) and kidnapping.

Earlier, human rights groups criticized the Taliban for punishing the accused without due process and free and fair trails.