The session brought together provincial governors of border provinces of both Iran and Afghanistan on Tuesday where Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli participated as Iran’s highest ranking authority.
He told reporters in a brief press conference that the session had been fruitful, with trade, security, social, and political agreements signed in the 2-day session, along with 5 MoUs with Afghanistan; “we hope that the agreements will bring boom to the border regions on both sides of the borders; according to Article 14 of the statement, there will be monthly meetings on different issues. Sistan and Baluchistan has been selected as headquarters of the cooperation between Iran and Afghanistan,” he told the press.
Rahmani Fazli also said that both countries should address their challenges in borders immediately; “security is the foremost issue and years of insecurity has posed significant expenses to Afghan people; drug cartels are also issues of concern for both countries where an annual whopping $ 60bn goes to European drug cartels with Afghans only languishing with the drawbacks of the drugs planted in Afghanistan,” said the interior minister. “No support of whatsoever sort had been presented to Afghanistan and Iran for fighting drug trafficking and both nations cooperated by their own means to bring security to borders.”
He also announced an alternative cropping plan for Afghanistan which would provide the country with 100 per cent benefits; Rahmani Fazli also pointed to an issue of grave concerns, that is, human trafficking, but added that Iran would provide hosting services to Afghans as long as they work and live in Iran by legal means. On economy of border markets, the interior minister believed that the markets should contribute to equal development opportunities for all three countries of Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, where the spirit of fraternity supplants rivalry and conflict of interests.
The pressing issue however is environmental disaster underway in Iranian side of the border where different governments of Afghanistan glossed over the fact that they had not been allowing Iranian side of the Hirmand River, which had since long, passed the border and irrigated Iranian lands. Iranian side of the border now experiences environmental disaster, with underground waters dwindling increasingly, thus rendering the region virtually inhospitable for the locals.
SH/3723980/3724115
Your Comment