By India Blooms News Service May 21, 2023
Tehran: Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said the Taliban government of Afghanistan should ensure Irans water rights of the Helmand River based on international treaties, media reports said.
Addressing reporters during a visit to Sistan and Baluchestan province on Thursday, Raisi said the current Afghan authorities should immediately provide Iran with its share of water, reports Tolo News.
I will remind the rulers of Afghanistan that they should not regard our demand as being ordinary and must take it very seriously, Raisi said.
Rights to water from the Helmand River have emerged as a contentious issue between the two nations.
Irans Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian called on the current Afghan government to open the floodgates of the Kajaki Dam so that both the people of Afghanistan and Sistan will have access to water.
Regarding the issue of water, acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi stressed that Afghanistans stance is based on the water treaty between the two countries, said Takal, the deputy spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Hafiz Zia Ahmad Takal, reports Tolo News.
Takal said the acting foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, held a telephone conversation with Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, during which the two sides stressed the need for cooperation in the fields of commerce, energy, power, railways, the border, water and Afghan refugees in Iran.
We have a water treaty of 1973 with the Iran Islamic Republic and we will be committed to it in the future as well, Matiullah Abid, a spokesman for the Ministry of Energy and Water, was quoted as saying by Tolo News.