Present Taliban No Different From The Group In 1990s, Says Former Iranian Ambassador

United States, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, France, and Canada are members of Group Seven. The annual meeting of the G7 leaders was held in Hiroshima, Japan, on Friday.

The G7 leaders expressed their concerns about the severe humanitarian and economic situation in Afghanistan.

The G7 leaders stressed that Afghanistan lacks political inclusiveness and urged the Taliban to take important steps to form a national, inclusive, and Afghan-led dialogue.

The G7 leaders referred to the Taliban’s restrictions on Afghan women and said that all Afghans should have the right to full, equal, and meaningful participation in every field of life.

The Taliban has inaugurated Bakhshabad dam only two days after Iran’s warning to the Taliban on their water rights issue from the Helmand River.

On Thursday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, during a visit to Sistan Baluchistan province, warned the Taliban to give the water rights of Iran.

Raisi also emphasised that the Taliban should take his warning seriously and not complain later that “they were not told”.

At the inauguration ceremony of the construction of tunnels of Bakhshabad dam, Mullah Baradar said, "The Taliban considers it its responsibility to solve the problems of the people of Farah province. We should have tried last year to save the water of this dam and its water would not be wasted, but the Taliban has inherited many problems in the country, which cannot be solved all at the same time.”

According to a Taliban statement, Mullah Baradar also added, "We will use the means we have to complete the remaining work of the Bakhshabad dam, and I also ask the company to carry out the assigned tasks in good faith.”

According to the Taliban's statement, Bakhshabad Dam, with a length of 50 km from the right side and 52 km from the left side, has the capacity to irrigate 68,590 hectares of land.

According to the Taliban’s statement, the construction of Bakhshabad dam will finish soon.

According to the Uzbek media outlets, both sides emphasised on the need for the international community to remain focused on Afghanistan in order to prevent the country from becoming a source of security threats.

Providing humanitarian aid to the people of Afghanistan had also been one of the other topics of discussion among the British and Uzbek senior officials.

According to media reports, Uzbekistan and the UK agreed to continue the engagement of the representatives between the two countries regarding the issues of the region and Afghanistan.

At the meeting of the leaders of China and Central Asia, the Kazakh president emphasised that the humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan must be channeled under the supervision of the United Nations.

The leaders of China, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan were present at the China-Central Asia meeting and discussed the expansion of cooperation between the regional countries.

According to TASS news agency, the president of Kazakhstan believed that the current situation in Afghanistan is dangerous for all the regional countries. He spoke about the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan and emphasised on the importance of engagement of the international community to address the humanitarian situation of the country.

Tokayev said that Kazakhstan supports China's peaceful foreign policy towards Central Asia and is ready to cooperate with Beijing with the aim of regional stability and global security.

Xi Jinping, the president of China, announced at this summit that Beijing is ready to expand cooperation with Central Asia.

According to Iranian Students' News Agency (ISNA) Qomi added, "Taliban officials know that if they want to establish a stable government in Afghanistan, they must have constructive engagement with their neighbours."

Verbal tensions have emerged on Iran’s water rights from Helmand River after Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi issued a warning to the Taliban on Thursday during a visit to Sistan and Baluchistan province of the country.

During his visit, Raisi warned the Taliban, "Take my words seriously so that you don't complain later."

The president of Iran threatened the Taliban in an unprecedented tone and said, "I want to tell the rulers of Afghanistan not to take my words as normal, to take them very seriously; I warn the authorities and rulers of Afghanistan to give the rights of the people and the region of Sistan and Baluchistan immediately."

Following these statements, the Taliban issued a rather harsh statement and asked the Iranian authorities to refrain from "provocative statements".

However, now the verbal tensions have taken on a much more serious dimension and an Iranian member of Parliament has pointed to the Taliban as saying that Iranian officials are not Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan president who fled the country, and Iranian forces are not "fugitive American soldiers".