EU, Central Asian Special Envoys Call For Inclusive Government in Afghanistan

Mahami, who represents Ali Khamenei, Iran's leader, in his Friday prayer sermon in Zahedan city, called the warning of Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi to the Taliban as "satisfying for the people of Sistan and Baluchistan" and asked for follow ups of the water rights issue.

According to the Iran Student News Agency (ISNA), Mahami connected the water rights issue to the US and said, "When the Kamal Khan dam project started, we reported to the capital of the country, but no one took any action." According to him, it was US’ agenda to prevent the flow of water from Kajaki dam to Iran.

Over the past weeks, Iran's water rights claim from Helmand River has escalated tension between the Islamic Republic and the Taliban.Earlier, 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.

“In some areas of Kabul, there are many Shias and hence, ombudsmen (Muhtasibs) have been hired from among Shia scholars,” he added.

According to him, Hibatullah Akhundzada was in favour of this decision.

This Taliban official had given a speech during a meeting with several Taliban cabinet members and supporters of the group in Kabul on Thursday.

Khalid Hanafi said that the Taliban’s Ministry of Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice deals with religious administration and all sects, including followers of the Shia sect of Islam, come under it.

This Taliban ministry in March had announced that they would be hiring new Muhtasibs.

Taliban ombudsmen have been accused of violating people's privacy in many cases. House searches without warrant and inspection of people’s phone are some examples of the violations.

While the Taliban’s Minister of Promotion of Virtues and Prevention of Vice has commented on hiring Shia scholars as Muhtasibs, it has been said that the group is against teaching Jafari jurisprudence in some of the educational centers.

On June 2022, sources told Afghanistan International that by the order of the Taliban leader Jafari jurisprudence had been replaced by Hanafi jurisprudence in Bamiyan University, a province which has mostly Shias.

Iran’s assistant foreign minister responded to the concerns of Afghan refugees regarding the tensions between Tehran and the Taliban over water rights issues and its possible impacts on Afghans residing in Iran.

Mohammad Kazem Kazemi, an Afghan writer, and poet living in Iran, referred to the possible pressure of the Iranian government on Afghan refugees.

Referring to the statements of some Iranian officials who called for putting pressure on Afghan immigrants, Kazemi wrote in a note on his Instagram account, "The truth is that these refugees are actually more on Iran's side, both in terms of being in Iran and socialising and living together in the Iranian society and in the sense that they were mainly opponents or even rejected by the Taliban.”

Kazemi claimed that Afghan refugees living in Iran can be a support to Tehran inside Afghanistan.

Earlier, a member of the Iranian parliament had demanded the expulsion of Afghan refugees from the country in order to put pressure on the Taliban regarding the water rights from Helmand water.

In the past weeks, the tension between the Taliban and the Islamic Republic have intensified over water rights from the Helmand River. The tensions have escalated by the intervention of Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, who warned the Taliban to resolve the water rights issue from Helmand River.

The Taliban said it is committed to providing Iran's rights according to the 1973 treaty, however, the drought in recent years has reduced the water in the Helmand River.
The Islamic Republic of Iran, however, insisted that an Iranian technical expert team should examine the Taliban’s claim of lack of water in Afghanistan dams.

Grigoryev emphasised that the goal of the three countries is to “achieve intra-Afghan reconciliation through the formation of an inclusive ethnopolitical government”.

According to the Russian ambassador in Tajikistan, peace in Afghanistan can be achieved through the formation of an inclusive government.

According to the Tass News Agency, Grigoryev added that the situation in Afghanistan is the focus of Moscow, Beijing, and Dushanbe and that these three countries will use all available formats to solve Afghanistan's problems.

Earlier, the international community had declared that formation of an inclusive government is one of the conditions for recognition of the Taliban. Nevertheless, Taliban repeatedly said that their government is inclusive and represents all Afghans.

Mawlawi Abdul Kabir, acting prime minister of Taliban on Thursday, during a meeting with some of the group’s cabinet members in Kabul said that all ethnicities are present in their government.

Justifying his claim, he said that an ethnic Uzbek, Abdul Salam Hanafi; a Tajik, Qari Fasihuddin Fitrat and, from Panjshir Nooruddin Azizi are part of the Taliban government.

However, Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister on April 14 in a press conference said that non-Pashtun members of the Taliban government are all Taliban members.

Calling the regressive policies of the Taliban crimes against humanity, the statement said that the actions should be investigated as possible crimes under international law, including the crime against humanity of gender persecution.

Both the international rights watchdog also released a 62-page report, ‘The Taliban’s war on women: The crime against humanity of gender persecution in Afghanistan’, which presents a detailed legal analysis of how the Taliban’s draconian restrictions on the rights of Afghanistan’s women and girls.

The report also emphasises the use of imprisonment, enforced disappearance, torture and other ill-treatment by the Taliban and added that these could amount to the crime against humanity of gender persecution under Article 7(1)(h) of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“Let there be no doubt: this is a war against women – banned from public life; prevented from accessing education; prohibited from working; barred from moving freely; imprisoned, disappeared and tortured including for speaking against these policies and resisting the repression. These are international crimes. They are organized, widespread, systematic,” said Agnès Callamard, Secretary General at Amnesty International.

The statement also called on other states to exercise universal jurisdiction or other lawful means to bring to justice Taliban members suspected of responsibility for crimes under international law.

It added that the upcoming enhanced interactive dialogue on the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan at the 53rd session of the UN Human Rights Council could be used as an opportunity to discuss gender persecution and other possible crimes under international law by the Taliban.

“The gravity of the crime demands a far more robust international response than has been seen to date,” Callamard added.

The report released covers the period from August 2021 to January 2023 and bases its analysis on a growing body of evidence collected by credible sources, including Amnesty International’s 2022 report Death in Slow Motion, civil society organisations and UN authorities.

Cases such as imprisonment, torture, disappearance and misbehaviour of the Taliban members with women are mentioned in the report. Afghan women and girls have been arbitrarily arrested by the Taliban for so-called “moral crimes” as a result of infringing the discriminatory mahram restrictions by the de facto authorities, and for their participation in peaceful demonstrations, said the report.

Furthermore, the report highlights the repressive policies of the Taliban regime against protesting women who took to the streets and demanded their rights and the removal of gender-based discrimination.