Iran's Water Demands on Taliban Spark Row Over Economic Understanding at Chabahar Port: What's the Story?
Chabahar Port is one of Iran’s most important geopolitical and economic assets. Located on the Sea of Oman coast, it is Iran’s only oceanic port and provides direct access to open waters outside the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.
Ambassador Arjan: In the situation that Iran is under sea blockade by the American army, economic cooperation with the border neighbors for import and export of goods has become more important for the government. In the last few days, however, the discussion of economic relations between Iran and Afghanistan has come under the scrutiny of the media and public opinion, which has not only caused confusion about the type of investment, but has even opened the case of Iran's water rights claim from Afghanistan once again in the media.
Controversy of a claim about handing over land to Afghanistan
The story started with the statements of Mohsen Zanganeh, the representative of Torbat Haidarieh, in an interview with Sahar Afghanistan Network; where he narrated the initial understanding to allocate about 10 hectares of land near the waters of Chabahar port and more than 100 hectares in the special economic zone of this port to Afghanistan and called it a good news.
He also stated in this conversation that: "We made an agreement in the meeting we had with the honorable Minister of Industry. He suggested that we assign an area to Afghanistan in Chabahar. It means that Afghanistan can have a land of its own in the Chabahar port, in the free zone. But these statements and Zanganeh's use of the phrase "his own land" not only caused a lot of confusion about this type of agreement, which was even accompanied by negative reactions. Reactions that caused Zanganeh to withdraw from his words.
Denying the transfer of land to Afghanistan, he said: "The issue was that based on the understanding made with the Islamic Republic of Iran, considering that today, especially despite the lack of a sea route to Afghanistan through the south, the Chabahar port of the Islamic Republic of Iran has become very important for this country and connecting Afghanistan and especially the countries of Central Asia through Afghanistan to the waters of the Persian Gulf and the Azad Sea through the Oman Sea. I announced that according to the agreement, 10 hectares of land in the port has been established. Chabahar and about 100 hectares of land in the free zone should be allocated for Afghanistan's investment in Chabahar region.
In the meantime, Moinuddin Saeedi, representative of Chabahar in the 11th parliament, in a conversation with Ambassador Arjan, in response to the recent statements of Mohsen Zanganeh, representative of Torbet-Hydrieh, about the issue of allocating land in the Chabahar Free Zone for Afghanistan's investment, avoided the story of Indian investment in Chabahar and said: "I think that this noble and learned brother of my servant, who is the representative of Torbet-Hydrieh and the city of Torbet-Hydrieh, is very It is close to the border of Afghanistan, they should be kind and first give the same lands that are in their constituencies to the people for handing over and have nothing to do with the lands of Chabahar in this regard."
Although Hossein Forozan, the secretary of the Supreme Council of Free Commercial-Industrial and Special Economic Zones, denied this issue after the rumors and hadiths about Chabahar Port lands, but the case of this issue opened its way in the press conference of Ismail Baqaei, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and he considered the claim of handing over Iranian soil to Afghanistan as baseless.
Referring to the statements of Mohsen Zanganeh, he said in response to reporters: "I think they provided the necessary explanations themselves. This issue was actually a clear misunderstanding, which was taken from the statements of one of the respected representatives of the parliament.
He continued: "It is quite clear that the transfer of soil and land is not possible in any way. What has been mentioned is the procedure that exists in different countries of the world and we have used this possibility and will use it in the future. Based on this, the countries that are landlocked and do not have access to open waters will be offered facilities in the form of leases to help promote trade between the two countries and, within the framework of good neighborliness, to provide these countries with access to ports and open waters for commercial transactions.
Chabahar Port is one of the most important geopolitical and economic assets of Iran, which is located on the coast of the Oman Sea, and it is the only oceanic port of Iran that provides the country with direct access to open waters outside the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. Chabahar can also play an important role in the development of Iran's foreign trade and connecting the trade routes of the region to open waters. This port is very important due to its strategic location, which is the closest way for the landlocked countries in Central Asia (Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan) to open waters, and a lot of construction and investment is done in it, and in the situation that Iran is under siege, it can become an important communication bridge for trade.
But apart from the fact that the use of the phrase "his own land" by this member of parliament caused the creation of these margins, it raised many questions. Questions such as: How and on what basis are the lands intended for Afghanistan's investment and commercial activities provided to Afghanistan? Is the Taliban government going to work on them or the Afghan investors? The questions that, although they are out of use due to the denial of the land transfer debate, but due to the issue of economic understanding between the two countries, no answers have been provided yet.
Why does Iran not get the necessary guarantee for water rights?
On the other hand, what has caused the protests of the media and public opinion to this memorandum is Iran's demand for water rights from the Taliban government, and critics raise the question that in a situation where securing Iran's water rights from Afghanistan is still one of Tehran's important demands, in addition to expanding economic cooperation and providing Afghanistan with access to trade routes, are the necessary measures and guarantees taken into account to pursue Iran's water rights?
Referring to this issue and criticizing the diplomatic system's relationship with the Taliban government, the newspaper Jomohri-e-Islami wrote: "The main problem here is that the diplomatic system has separated political and economic concessions from strategic negotiations. "We are witnessing that while the red carpet is being rolled out for the Taliban and diplomatic facilities are being provided, in the vital area of water security, no leverage has been extracted from these privileges to take the water rights of the Hirmand and Harirud rivers."
This demand has been raised while the government has repeatedly emphasized the pursuit of Hirmand water rights, but Ambassador Arjan wrote in an article referring to Afghanistan's watery year: "Afghanistan is going through one of its rainiest periods in the last century, but so far only half of Iran's water rights have been paid from the Hirmand River."
In fact, despite the authorities' repeated emphasis on pursuing Iran's water rights from Hirmand, the continued dispute over the amount of water delivered shows that this demand is still facing serious challenges. In such a situation, the issue is not only emphasizing Iran's legal right, but how to turn this demand into a concrete result in the relations between Tehran and Kabul; An issue that can be a measure to measure the efficiency of Iran's diplomacy in defense of national interests.