Afghanistan Hotbed of Regional Instability, Says Russian Defence Minister

The foreign minister of Iran added that the issue of water rights from the Helmand River can’t be solved with a political statement.

Amir Abdollahian’s statement about the Taliban and Iran’s objection to the group is the latest in a series of tense stances of Iranian officials in recent days.

Earlier during his visit to Indonesia, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi talked about the situation of Afghan women too.

Tensions of have increased between Iran and the Taliban in the past week after the Iranian president warned the Taliban on the water rights issue from Helmand River.

However, Saleh has not confirmed if there had been any casualties due to the airport attack.

The Afghan Vice-President wrote on Twitter on Thursday that following the attack, the Taliban searched through the smartphones of several people and deleted the images and videos regarding the attack to prevent the information from getting leaked to the public.

Saleh added that following the incident, the Taliban had claimed that such an attack had not taken place.

Saleh, on Monday, attributed the crash of the Taliban’s helicopter in Samangan province to the “Special Unit” too.

However, it is not clear whether the "Special Unit" is part of the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan or acts as an independent group.

At a press conference in Geneva, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights strongly criticised the Taliban and said that he could not understand how the group “can trample so cruelly upon the spirit of girls and women”.

The Taliban has rejected what the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner described as discrimination and oppression of Afghan women and called these statements as interference in the domestic affairs of Afghanistan.

Mawlawi Neda Mohmmad Nadim, the Taliban’s Minister of Higher Education, said in a meeting with the chief of the Pakistani mission in Kabul that international organisations and countries have been interfering in Afghanistan's internal affairs in the name of concerns about human rights situation of Afghanistan.

Justifying the Taliban's discriminatory policies, he said that "Afghans live in a traditional and intellectual society" and portrayed that the Taliban’s policies preserve Afghanistan’s people’s beliefs and culture.

However, Turk pointed out that policies that oppress women must end in Afghanistan and the region. He stressed that such policies while having human effects impacts, also hinder the economic growth of countries.

These protesters chanted the slogan "Women can’t be removed”.

It is the first time, since a long time, that the women have held a demonstration in the northern Takhar province.

No further details have been provided regarding the demonstration.

In an exclusive interview with Afghanistan International, the Taliban’s deputy foreign minister, however, said, "Taliban will provide Iran's water rights according to 1973 water treaty."

On Thursday, Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi warned the Taliban officials to allocate the share of water for Sistan and Baluchistan from the Helmand River. He said that the Taliban should take his warning seriously and "not complain later that we weren't told”.

The Taliban reacted to Raisi’s statement and said that there is not enough water in the Helmand River.

However, the Islamic Republic does not accept the Taliban’s claim of lack of water in the Helmand River and said that the Taliban should allow Iranian experts to visit the dams and confirm the Taliban’s claims.