Iran & Taliban Sign 5 Economic Cooperation Agreements

Zabihullah Mujahid, Taliban’s spokesperson, said that USD 5.57 billion will be invested in this project.

Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum in a statement wrote that the project was inaugurated in the presence of the group’s Minister of Mines Shahabuddin Delawar and Noor Ahmad Islamjar, the governor of Taliban in Herat.

According to the statement, the extraction contract of this project has been assigned to domestic and foreign companies.

In August, the Taliban signed contracts for seven mines with domestic and foreign companies worth USD 6.557 billion.

At that time, the Taliban announced that it had signed a contract for four Ghourian iron mining blocks with domestic and foreign companies, including British and Turkish firms.

Shahabuddin Delawar said that the extraction and processing of the project will be conducted inside Afghanistan. He expressed hope that the project will provide social services for the people of the region.

In August, the Taliban's Minister of Mines stated during the signing ceremony for seven mining contracts that these agreements had been under discussion for nearly two years.

Dehqanzada issued a statement to confirm the Afghan consulate’s connection with the Taliban after the Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan tore up the appointment of a letter of a Taliban diplomat in the embassy.

On Thursday, Zia Ahmad Takal, Deputy Spokesperson for the Taliban's Foreign Ministry, published Dehqanzada's video statement and wrote on X social media platform that the Afghan consulate in Khorog is operating under the supervision of the group.

In the video, Dehqanzada responded to the recent statements made by Zahir Aghbar, the Afghan ambassador to Tajikistan.

He considered Aghbar's statements as "irresponsible and lacking in truth". He clarified that "the Afghan consulate in Khorog is directly supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Taliban and operates according to its principles and legal powers”.

The Taliban's foreign ministry recently appointed a person named Faizullah as the first secretary in the Afghan embassy in Tajikistan.

Following his introduction, Aghbar tore up the Taliban diplomat's introduction letter in a press conference on Tuesday, November 7.

Aghbar said that until a legitimate government is formed in Afghanistan, he will protect the country's embassy in Tajikistan. He called this embassy "the trust of the Afghan people".

However, Dehqanzada claimed that after the collapse of the previous government, the scope of activities of the consulate has expanded for services such as issuing passports and issuing visas for Afghans living in Tajikistan.

He acknowledged that there is coordination with the authorities of Tajikistan in the areas of transit, trade, and border issues.

After the collapse of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, this is the second time that the meeting of ECO leaders has been held without the presence of representatives of Afghanistan.

The last time, Mohammad Ashraf Ghani, the former president of Afghanistan, participated and addressed the ECO summit, was in 2021.

Uzbek officials said that while Afghanistan is a member of the Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO), due to the internal political changes in the country since August 2021, the country has temporarily not participated in ECO summits.

According to Uzbek officials, Taliban representatives can only participate in ECO summits when the group’s government is recognised by the international community.

The leaders of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey are present at the ECO summit.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan, is the head of this round of the ECO summit.

The participants will discuss economic cooperation, investment, transportation, and the development of industrial cooperation during the ECO summit.

The Economic Cooperation Organisation, which is a regional intergovernmental economic structure, was established in 1984 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey, and its headquarters is in Tehran. Afghanistan and seven central Asian countries that had taken independence from the former Soviet Union received membership in the organisation in 1992.

Sources said that the Taliban wants to distract the public from more important issues by spreading false propaganda.

According to sources, the Qosh Tapa Canal is built in northern Afghanistan, which technically, has no impact on Pakistan.

Earlier, a Taliban official said that Pakistani officials have asked the group's leaders to stop work on the development of Qosh Tapa Canal.

Abdul Haq Hammad, Director of the Broadcasting Monitoring Department of the Ministry of Information and Culture of the Taliban said that Pakistani officials have discussed the Qosh Tapa Canal during the official meetings with the Taliban.

During an interview with TOLOnews TV, Hammad added that Pakistani officials have repeatedly and clearly asked Taliban leaders in official meetings to "shut down the Qosh Tapa canal”.

Hammad did not name any Pakistani officials but added that when asked why the canal should be shut, they said, "This canal is detrimental to us."

However, sources in Pakistan's interim government said that no such request was made in any meeting between Pakistani officials and the Taliban.

These sources clarified, "Since the Qosh Tapa Canal does not affect Pakistan, it is not reasonable for Pakistan to put such a request with the Taliban."

In the past two years, the Taliban has invested a substantial amount of money in the Qosh Tapa canal project, which diverts a portion of the Amu River's water to the northern regions of Balkh, Jowzjan, and Faryab provinces.

It is said that the canal is intended to provide irrigation for approximately 550,000 hectares of land and serve up to three million people. Critics contend that the Taliban may have employed the canal to relocate their targeted population and advance the group’s strategic objectives.

In the group photo of the leaders of the member states of the ECO summit, the flag and representative of Afghanistan is missing.

The leaders of Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Turkey are present at the ECO summit.

Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the president of Uzbekistan, is the head of this round of the ECO summit.

The participants will discuss economic cooperation, investment, transportation, and the development of industrial cooperation during the ECO summit.

The Economic Cooperation Organisation, which is a regional intergovernmental economic structure, was established in 1984 by Iran, Pakistan, and Turkey, and its headquarters is in Tehran. Afghanistan and seven central Asian countries that had taken independence from the former Soviet Union received membership in the organisation in 1992.