Iran Urges Taliban to Release Water From Salma Dam to Mashhad
Kazem Gharibabadi, Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister, has called on the Taliban administration to release water from Afghanistan’s Salma Dam towards Iran. During a meeting with the Taliban’s envoy in Tehran, Gharibabadi emphasized that the water should flow through the Doosti (Friendship) Dam to meet the water needs of the city of Mashhad, particularly for Afghan residents and migrants living there.
Gharibabadi shared the details of the meeting on social media platform X on Wednesday, November 13, noting that this discussion followed recent agreements made during an Iranian delegation’s visit to Kabul. According to him, the dialogue also covered Iran’s water rights from the Helmand River.
The Salma Dam, located in the Chishti Sharif district of Herat province, was constructed during the previous Afghan government with Indian financial and technical assistance, at a cost of approximately $300 million. It is considered a key infrastructure project for water resource management in western Afghanistan.
The Taliban embassy in Tehran also confirmed the meeting, claiming that in addition to water issues, the two sides discussed the situation of Afghan prisoners in Iran, the challenges faced by Afghan migrants, and the enhancement of consular cooperation.
Although the Taliban administration is directly responsible for managing the country’s dams, it remains unclear how it will respond to Iran’s request to release water from the Salma Dam. In the past, the Taliban has frequently taken an inconsistent and unilateral approach to the flow of the Helmand River, despite legal obligations under the 1973 treaty on Iran’s water rights.
