A Member of Parliament Announced; Water Reserves in Sistan and Baluchestan Only Last for the Next Two Months

A member of the National Security Commission of Parliament has reported on the water crisis in Sistan and Baluchestan, stating that he has written a letter to the President emphasizing that the water reserves in the province will run out in two months, putting the region's approximately two million population in a water security crisis. Fada Hossein Maleki, in an interview with the Tasnim news agency, also referred to Iran's water rights from the Helmand River and stressed that 'authorities at the governmental level must intervene in this issue' and resolve it through direct negotiations with the Taliban. According to Maleki, the continuation of this trend in the coming months will lead to a 'humanitarian disaster' in Sistan and Baluchestan. The Helmand water rights issue was one that experts believed the Islamic Republic hoped would be resolved with the Taliban's rise to power, but as tensions have escalated, many specialists and even citizens of Sistan and Baluchestan attribute the persistence of these problems to Iran's weak diplomacy in pursuing its Helmand water rights and its failure to utilize the opportunities and resources at its disposal. The importance of the issue has led domestic media to publish numerous reports on the region's conditions, and in this regard, on May 25, the Ham Mihan newspaper published a detailed report stating: 'Afghanistan has evaded paying Iran's water rights in recent years and has altered the course of the Helmand River with the construction of the Kajaki Dam and subsequently the Kamal Khan Dam, so that even in the event of flooding, water will flow into Goudzar instead of Iran.' Experts view the construction of these dams as a tool for pressuring the Islamic Republic by the previous Afghan government, which has now become a pressure tool in the hands of the Taliban. On Saturday, May 13, Tasnim news agency quoted a hydro-political expert stating that Afghanistan has focused its dam constructions on watersheds shared with Iran. According to Hamshahri Online, Behnam Andik has also identified the water challenge as one of the most important current issues between Iran and Afghanistan, emphasizing that 'at the international level and in global public opinion, the issue has been framed in such a way that Iran is to blame, and for this reason, we cannot utilize international mechanisms.' The Shargh newspaper also addressed various aspects of the issue, emphasizing that the lives of 1.5 million people are at risk and posed a 'fundamental question': 'The Hamoun Wetland, which 1.5 million people depend on, is deliberately threatened by the Taliban, so what is the reason for the Islamic Republic's friendship with the Taliban regime and the handing over of the Afghan embassy in Tehran to them? Where is the government's responsibility?' According to the 'Delta' treaty, Afghanistan is supposed to provide Iran with its water rights from the Helmand River. Mansour Sohrabi, an expert, stated that the Taliban is seeking to gain leverage over Iran through the Helmand water rights.