World News | Iran warns Taliban rulers of Afghanistan not to violate water rights in Helmand River

TEHRAN, May 18 (AP) — Iran’s president warned Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers on Thursday not to violate the Iranian people’s right to water on the Helmand River they share, the state-run IRNA news agency reported.

President Ibrahim Raisi has said his government is determined to defend Iran’s right to water.

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“We will not allow the rights of our people to be violated,” he said, warning the Taliban to take his words seriously, stressing the importance of the Helmand River, which flows from Afghanistan into Iran.

Lacey was speaking in the Pakistani border town on Thursday, his first official visit to the neighboring country in 10 years, to inaugurate the first of six markets along the Iran-Pakistan border.

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He also urged the Afghan Taliban to allow Iranian hydrologists to check the water levels of rivers that originate in Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush mountains.

The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021 after the United States and NATO withdrew from the country after 20 years of war.

Iranian officials have long stressed the importance of implementing the 1973 Helmand River Treaty between Iran and Afghanistan, which envisages shared water resources.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, the drought problem has existed in Iran for about 30 years, but has worsened in the past decade.

The Iran Meteorological Organization said an estimated 97 percent of the country now faces some degree of drought. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)