Hossein Maroufi, Deputy Head of Mobilisation of Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), referred to border clash with Taliban and said that many on social media, spoke about waging a war with the group. Maroufi stressed that Afghanistan and Pakistan are not a threat to Iran.
According to Iran Student News Agency (ISNA), the Deputy Head of Mobilisation of IRGC added that Iran’s enemies want to trick the country on a local issue and emphasised that the clash with the Taliban must have been resolved locally and in the Hirmand district.
This Iranian senior security official called the border skirmish with the Taliban a mistake and said that waging a war against the Taliban is not right.
Maroufi stressed that Iran is facing “enemies such as the United States and Israel”.
The recent border skirmish between Iranian border guards and the Taliban fighters has had victims on both sides.
The Directorate of Economy of Herat province announced that a four-member committee has been appointed to oversee the activities of Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs). The committee will supervise the hiring, project implementation, and aid distribution of these NGOs.
Abdul Qadir Nasir, Director of the Economy Directorate of Herat, told the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency, that they will try to bring transparency to the activities of NGOs, and “the committee will consist of a representative from Herat governor’s office and three other members from the directorate of economy”.
According to Nasir, the committee has evaluated all registered NGOs in Herat, 48 of which have been considered illegal and active against the principles of the Taliban. However, Nasir didn’t elaborate on nullifying the licences of these NGOs.
Earlier, the Taliban announced that the group allows activities of independent organisations which should not be against the “Taliban regime”. The Taliban has not shown any tolerance to those who criticise the group and has prevented such activities.
In over the last two decades, it is the first time that Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) which have been active as private groups, have been put under the supervision of government agencies.
However, the Taliban’s Directorate of Economy has not explained whether the international aid organisations in Herat have been included in the oversight mission of the newly formed committee.
The US State Department recently accused the Taliban of interfering in the activities of international relief organisations in Afghanistan and trying to benefit from the humanitarian projects of these aid agencies.
The US Department of State stressed that the Taliban’s interferences have caused the suspension of several aid projects funded by the United States in Ghor and Ghazni provinces of Afghanistan.
Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s interior minister, said that the Taliban has dismissed some of its "irresponsible" or "low-level" officials who made statements against Iran. Vahidi didn’t name these dismissed Taliban officials.
However, Abdul Hamid Khorasani, the commander of the "Nasser Badri" unit of the Taliban, threatened Iran several times after the border conflict between the Taliban and Iran escalated in Nimroz province.
Khorasani had published a video clip, which he later deleted, warning that the Islamic Republic should owe gratitude to the patience of the Taliban elders, otherwise, his forces will fight Iran more eagerly than the jihad against the United States.
Recently, and before the border conflict between the two sides, Khorasani had announced that he had "resigned" from his position as the district governor of the Taliban in the Ahmadabad district of Paktia province.
Referring to the dismissal of some Taliban officials, Iran's Interior Minister added that they had made "unreasonable statements" against the Islamic Republic.
Vahidi said that Tehran has been engaging with the Taliban and "the issues should be resolved through dialogue".
He added that currently, the situation in the border areas of Afghanistan and Iran is calm and the borders are open to traffic.
Iran's interior minister said that the Taliban opened fire by mistake in the border areas of Nimroz, and during the skirmish, the two sides lost members of its forces.
He urged the Taliban to "be careful and justify their border guards so that such incidents do not happen".
On Saturday, the Taliban fighters and the border guards of the Islamic Republic clashed in the border areas of Nimroz province.
The Taliban has deployed heavy military equipment and weapons at the Islam Qala border with Iran. Videos received by Afghanistan International show that a convoy of Humvees and tanks has been sent from Herat to the border with Iran.
According to local sources, the deployment of troops and advanced military equipment has taken place after verbal tension between the Taliban and the Iranian side.
Local sources said that the Taliban have prevented the construction of a road and the installation of barbed wire by the Iranian border guards.
After the reports about the tension between Iranian and Taliban forces at the Islam Qala border, Iranian media reported that the situation is calm in the border region.
Tasnim News Agency, close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, denied reports of tension between the Taliban and the border guards of the Islamic Republic.
On Tuesday night, it was reported the traders had evacuated fuel tankers and other transport vehicles from Islam Qala and Dogharon borders.
However, Taliban officials have not officially commented on deploying troops to the border at Islam Qala.
Reports of tensions at the Islam Qala border emerged as earlier the Taliban and border guards of the Islamic Republic engaged in a border skirmish in Nimroz.
The Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education has ordered university professors to refrain from criticising the group’s government in their academic papers. According to a letter obtained by Afghanistan International, the professors must know Dari and Pashto languages.
The letter contains seven points as orders to be followed in research and translation and has been signed by Hamidullah Muzammil, the director of research and translation of the Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban.
A reliable source from the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education confirmed the authenticity of the letter.
The letter orders professors to defend the current Taliban regime and avoid any kind of criticism in their writings so as to not face any consequences.
The letter explicitly asked that the professors to avoid using Persian terms for “court, prosecutor, student, university, and faculty,” in their research work. The Ministry of Higher Education of the Taliban has said that the country has "national terms" for these words and those terms must be used.
Banning Persian terms, particularly for universities in different cities of Afghanistan, has caused many reactions inside Afghan universities and the media. The Taliban’s government agencies have labeled these Persian terms as “foreign” and prevented their use by Persian speakers of Afghanistan. It is while the officials of the previous Afghan government and the Taliban are not sensitive towards terms from Urdu and English languages used across the country.
Earlier, the Taliban had removed Persian words from plaques of government agencies across Afghanistan.
The letter, too, has stated that the university professors need to learn Pashto and Dari as the two official languages of Afghanistan. The letter emphasised that "each professor must be able to read, write, speak and teach both official languages."
The letter also ordered university professors to write with “full respect” the names of national figures including “Sayed Jamaluddin Afghan”; “Sultan Mahmood Ghaznavi”, “and “Ahmad Shah Baba.” The Taliban have threatened that failure to comply with these orders will result in the prosecution of "the author, researcher, translator, supervisor” and other university officials, including the university chancellor.
The letter from the Taliban’s Ministry of Higher Education stressed that the authors of academic papers must quote Islamic views in their writings and that failure to comply with these orders will have severe consequences.
Masoom Stanekzai, the former chief negotiator of previous Afghan government, urged the Taliban and Iran not to act based on emotional actions and think of the consequences due to the conflict. Stanekzai said that “Creating tension may be easy, but has irreparable consequences.”
On Wednesday, the former chief peace negotiator emphasised that the tension between the Islamic Republic and the Taliban should be resolved through dialogue. According to him, "Afghans need peace, not the interference of others."
Over the past few weeks, tension between Iran and the Taliban escalated on the water rights issue from the Helmand River, and on Saturday, border guards of both the sides clashed in Nimroz province.
A Taliban fighter and a border guard of Iran had been killed in the border skirmish.