Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, leader of the Islamic Party, has described the contract for gas exploration and extraction in Herat\u2019s Kashk-Tirpul basin as a decision without legal basis, warning that such moves by the Taliban administration could expose Afghanistan to new political and security conflicts.<\/p>\n
In a piece titled, “What is happening in the region, and where are they taking Afghanistan?” he said a government imposed on the people, in his words, with the “money and weapons of foreigners” had no authority to decide on national resources. Hekmatyar added that the Taliban administration signed the deal at a time when, according to him, there is no constitution, no representative council of the nation, and no structure that enjoys public support.<\/p>\n
The Islamic Party leader stressed that dealing over the country’s resources without consulting the people and without review by a legal authority could pave the way for new crises. He warned that decisions by a few figures of a group about the country’s reserves and assets would have wide-ranging consequences for Afghanistan’s future.<\/p>\n
Hekmatyar also pointed to the sensitivity of energy transit routes, saying competition over pipelines and export routes could lead to new proxy wars. According to him, regional rivals of the companies involved in Afghanistan’s projects will not remain silent in the face of these plans.<\/p>\n
He claimed that Russia and Iran oppose the transfer of Central Asian oil and gas through Afghanistan to the south and will try to prevent such projects from being implemented. Hekmatyar added that any assumption that these countries are unable to counter such projects would be “a big mistake.”<\/p>\n
Hekmatyar said the deal continues the rivalries of the 1990s, adding that the Taliban administration’s current agreement with Delta International recalls the efforts of international oil companies in Afghanistan during that period. He described the company’s return and the presence of some figures linked to that era as evidence of the continuation of the same geopolitical rivalries.<\/p>\n
In the closing lines of his piece, he asked whether the failures and bloody experiences of the past were not enough to prevent such actions from being repeated. According to him, Taliban decisions without a legal mechanism and national representation could leave Afghanistan facing new security and political costs.<\/p>\n
The Taliban administration’s Ministry of Mines and Petroleum announced on Sept. 16 that it had signed a contract with Delta International for the exploration and extraction of seven blocks in the Kashk-Tirpul gas basin in Herat province. The Taliban said the company has committed to investing $50 billion in the project, and the contract was signed in the presence of Abdul Ghani Baradar, deputy prime minister in the Taliban administration, and Zalmay Khalilzad, the former US envoy for Afghanistan. Khalilzad’s presence at the ceremony also prompted widespread reactions.<\/p>\n
The Kashk-Tirpul basin in Herat province, in western Afghanistan, is considered one of the important energy sites, and any contract in this sector carries high political and economic sensitivity because of its link to regional energy transit routes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hekmatyar warns the Taliban’s Herat gas deal could fuel new political and security tensions in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,4,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-important-news","category-politics","category-secondary-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/atlaspress.news\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}