Taliban Committed Tragedy By Attacking Consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif City, Says Iran’s FM

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the Foreign Minister of the Islamic Republic, said that the Taliban attacked the Consulate General of Iran in Mazar-e-Sharif in 1998 and "committed a tragedy”.

In a statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Iran asked for clarification regarding the attack as a definite demand of the Islamic Republic.

On the 25th anniversary of the killing of Iranian diplomats in Mazar-e-Sharif, Amir-Abdollahian also published the photos of the Iranian diplomats and the journalist killed during the attack.

However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic, which issued a statement on the anniversary of the killing of Iranian diplomats, refused to name the Taliban as the perpetrators of the Mazar-e-Sharif attack.

Iranian foreign ministry stressed, "Twenty-five years ago, in the midst of the civil war of Afghanistan, following the Taliban forces’ takeover of Mazar-e-Sharif city, contrary to moral, humanitarian and international obligations, the Consulate General of the Islamic Republic of Iran was attacked, and the diplomats and the journalist of the Republic Islamic Iran were martyred."

The Taliban has not claimed responsibility for the attack on the Iranian consulate yet.

Iranian foreign ministry, while asking for clarification about the 1998 attack on the country’s consulate in Mazar-e-Sharif city, stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran believes that the way forward for Afghanistan is to form an inclusive government from all ethnic, religious, and political groups of Afghans.

However, after the Taliban’s emergence to power for the second time in Afghanistan in August 2021, the group has established close ties with the Islamic Republic. In the past months, the foreign ministers of Iran and the Taliban have met and discussed bilateral issues on several occasions.

After the Taliban regained control, the Islamic Republic was one of the few countries that kept its embassy in Kabul. This country handed over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to the Taliban despite protests from the political opponents of the group.