Legitimacy of Taliban A Challenge For Iran, Says Tehran’s Commercial Attache in Kabul
Hossein Roustaei, the commercial attaché of Iran in Afghanistan, said that the issue of the legitimacy of the Taliban is one of the biggest challenges in Iran.
Hossein Roustaei, the commercial attaché of Iran in Afghanistan, said that the issue of the legitimacy of the Taliban is one of the biggest challenges in Iran.
He did not explain more about the issue of legitimacy, but said that Afghanistan currently has a good opportunity to import goods from Iran.
During a meeting with the members of the private sector of Iran on Thursday, Roustaei announced an increase in the export of goods from Iran to Afghanistan.
According to him, in the first quarter of this year, Iran's exports to Afghanistan increased by two percent and reached 508 million dollars.
Roustaei added that last year, Iran exported goods worth about 1.7 billion dollars to Afghanistan.
The commercial attaché of Iran in Kabul explained that most of the imports in Afghanistan are related to food, agriculture, fuel, flour, wheat, sugar, edible oil, plastic products, eggs, vegetables, citrus fruits, ceramic tiles, medicine, medical equipment, and construction materials.
Roustaei quoted Taliban officials as saying that Iran is the biggest trade partner of the group.
He said that Afghanistan is the only country that imports more than 92% of its needs from neighbouring countries, especially Iran.
Although the Islamic Republic has not recognised the Taliban, it enjoys close ties with the group.
The Taliban's Ministry of Mines and Petroleum signed contracts for the extraction of seven large mines worth 6.557 billion dollars with domestic and foreign companies.
Shahabuddin Delawar, the group’s Minister of Mines and Petroleum, said that these contracts can lead Afghanistan to economic self-sustainability.
These contracts were signed on Thursday by Delawar along with the awarded companies in the presence of several senior officials of the group, including Mullah Baradar, the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister.
Delawar said that the process of awarding these contracts has taken around two years.
The Taliban officials said that one of the mines awarded is the Chah Aab gold mine, which is located in Takhar province and has an estimated 31 tonnes of gold. The awarded contract for this gold mine has been estimated at 1.8 billion dollars. The Taliban officials said that the awarded private company, China-Afghanistan, will invest 310 million dollars in this mine.
According to the Taliban officials, according to the contract, 56 percent of the mining profit will be taken by the Taliban and the other 44 percent will remain for China-Afghanistan company.
The other mining contract awarded was for Aynak II copper mine, which is located next to Aynak I copper mine in Logar province and was awarded to another unknown mining company.
According to Taliban officials, the company will invest around 411 million dollars in the second block of Aynak copper mine. The Taliban officials stressed that 12 percent profit from this mine would be given to the Taliban and the other 88 percent would belong to the company.
The Taliban also announced that a lead mine has been awarded to a private company with an expected 75-million-dollar investment. The mine is located in Tulak district of Ghor province.
The mining site has been awarded to an Afghan company for thirty years and 20 percent profit from the mine will be given to the Taliban and the remaining will be owned by the mining company.
The Taliban also announced the award of the first block of Ghorian iron mine site in Herat province to a joint venture of Afghan and Iranian companies.
The joint venture is supposed to invest 2.8 billion dollars in the first block of Ghorian iron mine. According to the Taliban officials, the contract has been awarded for 30 years and 13 percent of the mining profit goes to the Taliban and the other 87 percent will go to the mining companies.
The Taliban officials also stated that another 874 million dollars will be invested in the contract for the second block of Ghorian iron mine. The Taliban said that 13 percent of mining profit will be given to the group and the other 87 will be owned by the mining company.
The Taliban added that the mining site has been awarded to an Afghan-Turkish joint venture.
The Taliban has also awarded the contract for extracting the third block of Herat's Ghorian iron mine to a joint venture of British and Afghan companies.
According to the Taliban, the awarded companies will invest 272 million dollars on the third block of Ghorian iron mine.
According to this contract, 13 percent of the mining profit will be given to the Taliban and 87 percent profit will be taken by the mining companies.
The Taliban also announced that the fourth block of the Ghorian iron mine has been awarded to a joint venture of Iranian and Afghan companies.
The Taliban added that the profit-sharing form this mining site will be the same as the other blocks of the Ghorian mining sites.
Taliban’s foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi responded to those countries which are pressurising the Taliban to form an inclusive government and said that the group has fewer prisoners than executions carried out in those countries.
Addressing the Taliban’s Ulema gathering in Kabul on Wednesday, Muttaqi sarcastically questioned those countries and asked, “Do you have an inclusive government?”
"Thousands of people have disappeared in your country, but no one dares to ask about it," he continued.
The foreign minister of the Taliban did not name any country in his speech, but the Islamic Republic of Iran is one of the countries which has been accused of cracking down on its opponents and executing them and has repeatedly asked the Taliban to form an inclusive government.
Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign minister of the Islamic Republic, has repeatedly asked the Taliban to form an inclusive government in Afghanistan.
In addition to the Islamic Republic, the international community has repeatedly urged the Taliban to form an inclusive government too.
However, during his address at the Taliban’s Ulema gathering in Kabul, the Taliban’s foreign minister, considered the formation of the Taliban regime to be an internal issue and asked countries not to interfere in the affairs of the group.
Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokesperson, referred to the National Resistance Front (NRF) leader Ahmad Massoud's trip to Moscow and urged the Taliban to form an inclusive government.
During a press conference on Wednesday, Zakharova said that the Taliban and representatives of other ethnic groups should engage in negotiations.
She mentioned that three days ago, Massoud met with Sergey Mironov, the head of the “A Just Russia” Party at the Russian Parliament.
Russia has repeatedly asked the Taliban to form an inclusive government. Last year, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow would consider recognising the group as the legitimate government of Afghanistan if the Taliban guarantees the establishment of an inclusive government.
Zakharova added that although the Taliban government has not been recognised, Russia continues to cooperate with the group. However, she also emphasised that there are still terrorist threats and social, economic, and human rights issues under the rule of the Taliban.
"If the situation proceeds according to an unfavourable scenario, international terrorist organisations, primarily ISIS, will take advantage of the situation and plan to expand further outside of Afghanistan, especially in Central Asia,” said Zakharova.
She added that Russia wants the Taliban and representatives of other ethnic groups to start a dialogue in order to form a truly inclusive government, intensify the fight against terrorism, and drugs, and ensure human rights.
Ahmad Massoud, the leader of NRF, met with Sergei Mironov, in the State Duma of Russia in Moscow.
According to a statement by A Just Russia Party, the two sides discussed the political situation in Afghanistan.
In a statement, the NRF also wrote that Massoud discussed the ways out of the current crisis in Afghanistan during a meeting with Russian officials.
Two days ago, Russian expert Andrey Serenko, in an analysis wrote that the Taliban's focus is on dialogue with the United States and the group's growing financial and political dependence on Washington is probably a reason behind Moscow reconsidering its relations with the Taliban.
However, he said that despite the ties with the NRF, Russia will still try to maintain a dialogue with the Taliban, so that "all the eggs are not in one basket".
The Taliban convened a gathering of hundreds of its supporters who are mainly clerics, in Kabul and said that the purpose of this meet was for these clerics to declare their support for the group’s government.
The Taliban-controlled Bakhtar news agency reported on Wednesday that senior Taliban officials also participated in the gathering.
While addressing the gathering, Abdul Salam Hanafi, the Taliban’s Deputy Prime Minister, claimed that the group has established absolute security in Afghanistan. Hanafi added, "In the Islamic Emirate, all expenses of government offices are financed from the internal budget of the country."
Continuing to praise the Taliban, he claimed that during the republic era, the affairs of Afghanistan were based on personal and party interests.
So far, no country has recognised the Taliban. One of the main preconditions of the international community is the formation of an inclusive government and respect for human rights in Afghanistan.
In line with these demands, Amnesty International announced on Wednesday that 198,612 people around the world petitioned the Taliban to end human rights violations in Afghanistan.
In this petition, it has been emphasised that two years after the group’s takeover of Afghanistan, the country is on the verge of irreversible destruction.
In addition, Amir Khan Muttaqi, the Taliban's foreign minister, addressed the gathering and said, "We must know that uniting with tyrants and enemies of the homeland and asking them for help is not in anyone's interest."
Muttaqi did not name any person or group, but his statements were made a day after the visit of Ahmad Massoud, the leader of the National Resistance Front, to Moscow. During this trip, Massoud met Sergei Mironov, the leader of the A Just Russia Party, who is also considered an ally of Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.
During this meeting, Sergei Mironov said that he seeks the formation of an inclusive government in Afghanistan and extended a hand of friendship to the National Resistance Front.
However, the foreign minister of the Taliban claimed that no foreign country supports opponents of the group in Afghanistan.
Muttaqi stressed, "Afghanistan's weakness will be detrimental to everyone. It has been promised and assured in international forums that the world will not support the opponents of the current Afghan government.”
The Taliban has held similar meetings many times before to consolidate its power base and gain the support of clerics.
Amnesty has stated that 198, 612 people globally have signed a petition to stand with people in Afghanistan.
Referring to their petition which had been launched last year, the global rights body on social media platform X stated that Afghans deserve their right to live in freedom, dignity, and equality.
They also called on the Taliban to end human rights violations.
The petition had stated that the Taliban has started a new era of human rights abuse and violations since taking over on August 15, 2021 in Afghanistan.
Amnesty added that the Taliban had also broken their promise of protecting Afghan people’s rights, especially women’s rights, and they have resumed the cycle of violence and committed a litany of human rights abuses and violations with full impunity.
“Thousands of Afghans have been arbitrarily detained, tortured, disappeared, and even killed. Journalists, activists, human rights defenders, artists, academics, religious and ethnic minorities remain at particular risk,” the petition states.
It called on people to sign the petition as human rights in Afghanistan were under attack on all fronts and that it must be stopped.