On Monday, Iranian officials announced that over the past nine days, they have deported 13,879 Afghans from Iran to Afghanistan. Majid Shuja, commander of Khorasan Razavi border guards said that these Afghan refugees had been deported through the Dogharoon border crossing.
About a week ago, Shuja had also announced the deportation of another 19,000 Afghans to Afghanistan.
The commander of the Iranian border guards in Khorasan Razavi said that these Afghans had illegally entered Iran.
After the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, many Afghan citizens have taken refuge in Iran due to economic reasons, or due to fear of detention, and torture by the group in Afghanistan.
The Taliban leader Hibatullah Akhundzada has said that apart from “infidels, even the Islamic countries” have not recognised the Taliban government.
Abdul Wahid Rayan, director of the Taliban-controlled Bakhtar News Agency, said on Twitter that Akhundzada discussed the Taliban’s recognition with the provincial directors of information and culture of the group about a week ago in Kandahar.
According to Rayan, Akhundzada has told Taliban officials, “The world's charter was to recognise the ruler of Kabul, but today, when the Islamic Emirate rules all over the country, along with the infidels, even Islamic countries do not recognise it [Taliban government]."
The international community has not recognised the Taliban government due to gender and ethnic discrimination, human rights violations, and terror groups’ activities in Afghanistan.
The Taliban leader has stressed that some people, who he has not named, sacrifice everything for democracy, but has urged the Taliban not to abide to what he has called “pressure of the West”.
The Taliban leader has also said that “the United States and the United Nations have taken the world hostage” and elaborated that “the world can’t act without their orders”.
In what the director of Bakhtar News Agency has attributed to Akhundzada, the Taliban leader has emphasised that the group should consider Sharia in their "engagements". Although the issue of engagement has not been clarified, it seems that the Taliban leader meant engagement with the international community.
The Taliban leader has also pointed to the group’s members and said that they must pursue their goals so as not to suffer the fate of the Mujahideen after the victory over the Soviet Union forces in the 1980s. He emphasised that Taliban members should not engage in forbidden actions and must reign over Afghanistan according to Quran and Sunnah.
Akhundzada also added that the Taliban must hire people based on professionalism rather than friendship and stressed that the group’s members must not use their power for their personal gains.
The Taliban leader has asked the group members “to write the history of Jihad against the British, Soviets, and the United States for future generations in Afghanistan”, because according to Akhundzada their belief and faith would strengthen by following the history.
The Taliban leader has also asked the group’s members not to use “foreign” terms. Earlier, the Taliban Ministry of Higher Education had listed a number of Persian words as foreign terms and ordered a ban against using them.
Representatives of various countries in the United Nations Human Rights Council criticised the human rights situation in Afghanistan and urged the Taliban to immediately lift the restrictions against Afghan girls and women.
The Human Rights Council, on Monday, assessed the recently released report of Richard Bennett, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights for Afghanistan.
At the Human Rights Council’s meeting, which was broadcast by Afghanistan International, the Human Rights Council’s member states asked the international community to closely monitor human rights violations in Afghanistan and pressurise the Taliban to change their behaviour against Afghans.
Rina Amiri, the US Special Envoy for Women and Human Rights situation in Afghanistan, called Afghan women’s rights a strategic priority of Washington.
Amiri announced that the US condemns the Taliban's systematic discrimination against girls and women and stands with Afghans for human dignity and human rights.
The representative of France at the Human Rights Council stressed that the Taliban have locked Afghan women and girls at home and in darkness. The French envoy emphasised that the UN Special Rapporteur’s recent report about the human rights situation in Afghanistan shows that an unprecedented level of restrictions has been imposed on Afghan women which is equivalent to a gender apartheid by the Taliban and is considered a “war crime.”
The representative of Spain at the Human Rights Council also demanded an investigation into whether the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women is a "war crime".
The UN Children’s Agency’s representative said that six million children in Afghanistan need support. He added that in addition to the existing humanitarian crisis, human rights violations have made the situation in Afghanistan more complicated. According to the UNICEF representative, women, and girls experience violence now more than ever, and they face forced marriages and domestic violence.
The representative of Qatar at the Human Rights Council also asked the Taliban to lift the restrictions imposed on Afghan women's right to work and education.
The British representative at the Human Rights Council said that the Taliban has deprived girls above grade six from pursuing education for more than 600 days. He asked the Taliban to open schools and let women and girls work and get education.
The representative of Canada stated that Ottawa is worried about the situation of women's rights and the restrictions imposed by the Taliban. He added that gender discrimination is not only an attack on the rights of Afghan women and girls, but also endangers the future of Afghanistan.
Representatives of Finland, Belgium, the European Union, Kyrgyzstan, and South Korea also spoke at the Human Rights Council’s meeting. On behalf of Central Asian countries, the representative of Kyrgyzstan called for the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan and expressed concern about the situation of ethnic and religious minorities in Afghanistan.
Abdul Matin Qane, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Interior of the Taliban, said that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and other groups are not present in Afghanistan. On Monday, Qane said that ISIS has been suppressed in Afghanistan too.
However, Pakistan has repeatedly said that the Taliban has sheltered TTP members inside Afghanistan.
There are also reports that many Pakistani citizens from North Waziristan have been displaced to the various regions of Afghanistan. Pakistan's security officials said that the members of TTP have settled among the displaced people of North Waziristan in Afghanistan, and from there, these TTP members have been carrying out attacks inside Pakistan.
However, the Taliban’s Ministry of Interior spokesperson denied the presence of members of TTP in Afghanistan and said that only refugees from Pakistan’s Waziristan tribal areas are present in Afghanistan.
Recently, there have been reports of an agreement which has been reached between the Taliban and Pakistan on the settlement of TTP fighters in northern and western Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council in a recent report stated that the relationship between the Taliban and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Taliban and Al-Qaeda remains strong.
The UN report stressed that Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan has been carrying out attacks in Pakistan with the support of the Afghan Taliban.
While the Taliban continues to deny the presence of foreign terror groups inside Afghanistan, these entities pose threats across Afghanistan's borders, and the Islamic State- Khorasan (IS-K) operations inside Afghanistan have been more complex and on the rise.
Meanwhile, the "Voice of Khorasan" magazine published by ISIS, warned the Taliban that the fighters of "Islamic State" are present across what the group termed as Khorasan and that the Taliban will face difficult days ahead.
In recent weeks, ISIS attacks on the Taliban have increased. Last week, two senior Taliban commanders were killed in two separate suicide attacks in Badakhshan province.
Iranian lawmaker Mohammad Sargazi said that an Iranian parliamentary delegation will visit Afghanistan to pursue the water rights issue from the Helmand River.
According to Sargazi, the members of parliament have held talks with the Iranian foreign minister about their visit to Afghanistan.
The Iranian lawmaker did not specify a date for the visit of the delegation to Afghanistan, however, he stressed that the parliamentary delegation will consist of representatives of Sistan and Baluchistan provinces and the Iran-Afghanistan parliamentary friendship group.
Earlier, Hasan Kazemi Qomi, Iran’s ambassador to Kabul, said that the Taliban had agreed to the site visit of Kajaki Dam by Iranian experts.
Qomi told Iran's Khabar TV that Iranian experts will visit the dam in the next two weeks. The Iranian ambassador said that the issue of water rights has been followed closely with the Taliban.
The Iranian lawmaker also explained the visit of Iranian experts to the Kajaki Dam and said, "According to Article 5 of Appendix 1 of the 1973 water rights treaty, if the Afghan side declares that the water year is not normal, it must provide the Iranian side with information on the amount of water in the Helmand River. The Iranian side can request a visit to the Dehravood water measurement station to check the level of the Helmand River, and the Afghan side must facilitate the visit."
The Taliban, however, had previously expressed their opposition to the visit of Iranian experts to the Kajaki dam.
Earlier, in an exclusive interview with Afghanistan International, Sher Mohammad Abbas Stankzai, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Taliban, said that the group does not allow the officials of the Islamic Republic to visit the Kajaki Dam. According to him, military centers and dams are sensitive sites, and the Taliban does not allow "foreign agents" to visit them.
The Taliban have said many times that they are committed to the water rights treaty between Iran and Afghanistan, but stressed that there is not enough water to reach Iran.
However, the Islamic Republic has doubted these statements of the Taliban and emphasised that the Iranian experts must verify the Taliban’s claims.
Ahmad Vahidi, the Minister of Interior of Iran, said that negotiations with the Taliban officials regarding border issues had been held. According to ISNA, Vahidi added, "The Taliban has been acquainted with the problems and our borders are calm and open to traffic."
Iranian interior minister stressed that Iranian border guards are strong and decisive in performing their duties. However, he said that if the other side at the joint borders do not have a strong security system in place, the borders will face problems.
Iran's interior minister added, "Of course, the various cases that have occurred have been strongly dealt with, and security has been maintained at the borders. So, there are no problems with the borders of our country."
He said that the terrorists have been looking to infiltrate the borders, but they should know that they will be punished for their actions.
Vahidi said that during the negotiation with the Taliban, they were warned to clarify border issues to their people. He said, "Our border units strongly defend national interests and do not allow anyone to violate the borders.”
Earlier in May, as a result of the border skirmishes between Taliban forces and Iranian border guards in Kong area of Nimroz province, two Iranian border guards and a Taliban fighter had been killed.
Since the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021, except for scattered clashes, the latest border skirmish had been unprecedented in terms of the use of heavy weapons between the Taliban and Iranian border guards.
The border skirmish took place when tensions between the Taliban and Tehran had been high on the water rights issue from the Helmand River.