Taliban Shoots Dead Three Civilians in Daikundi Province, Say Local Sources

Farajirad, who is currently a university professor, added that the behaviour of the Taliban shows that they are becoming more violent as more concessions are being made to them.

The former Iranian ambassador stressed that the Taliban follows the policy of the previous Afghan government on water rights issues, and added that in some cases, they have lied about the lack of water in Afghan dams.

He said that the satellite photos show that they have changed the course of the water so that it enters the salt marsh and does not reach Iran.

Iran's former ambassador to Norway emphasised, "Iran has helped this group a lot since they came to power, and many of the issues that arose in the border areas were tolerated by Iran. Iran tried not to strain relations with the Taliban. But unfortunately, they do not have the capacity to cooperate with Iran."

He added that if the Islamic Republic ignores its claim on water rights from Helmand River, the Taliban will stick to Iran's issues in the future and will create problems at the borders with Iran.

The tensions between the Taliban and the Islamic Republic have increased since last Thursday, when the President of Iran, Ebrahim Raisi, made rather harsh statements in Sistan and Baluchistan regarding the water rights of Iran from the Helmand River.

Some Iranian officials said that the mistake of handing over the Afghan embassy to the Taliban should be corrected and this embassy should be taken back from the Taliban.

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.