Relations between Afghanistan and Iran were officially established in 1935 during Zahir Shah's reign and the Pahlavi dynasty's Reza Shah Pahlavi, though ties between the two countries have existed for millennia. As a result, many Afghans speak Persian, as Dari (an eastern dialect of Persian) is one of the official languages of Afghanistan, and many in Afghanistan also celebrate Nowruz, the Persian New Year.
Relations were negatively affected by the 1978 Saur Revolution and 1979 Iranian Revolution and issues related to the Afghan conflict (i.e. PDPA, Mujahideen, Afghan refugees, and the Taliban), as well as Iran's water dispute and the growing influence of the United States in the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. According to Deutsche Welle in 2018, an increase in Taliban activity in the border between Iran and Afghanistan suggests a possible cooperation between the Iranian forces and the Talibans. In a 2018 report by the Reuters, Afghan forces at the time accused Iran of presenting the Taliban with arms and money, but Iran denied the accusations. In July 2019, the Iranian government passed a law that provides Afghan nationals with a new chance to get Iranian residency. Afghans with specific scientific and professional achievements and those who have Iranian spouses and children are among those who are qualified to benefit from the law. After the Taliban returned to power in 2021, despite some differences, relations between the two countries have further developed.
Historical context
Afghanistan shares a relatively long history with Iran (called Persia in the West before 1935) and it was part of many Persian Empires such as Achaemenid and Sasanian dynasties. In fact the regions which encompass the modern state of Afghanistan were considered an integral part of Iran (Persia) by the 11th century poet Firdawsi in his Shahnameh, Zabulistan was even considered the homeland of the Iranian hero Rostam.Rostam und Sohrab: Eine Heldengeschichte in zwölf Büchern - Neuausgabe, by Friedrich Rückert
When the Safavid dynasty was founded in Persia, part of what is now Afghanistan was ruled by the Khanate of Bukhara and Babur from Kabulistan. The first Iranian Safavid Shah Shah Ismail I quickly expanded his empire in all directions, in which he also conquered large parts of nowadays Afghanistan. For centuries they ruled the region and the Safavids did not have any problems at first ruling the easternmost territories of their empire, but their policy towards non-Shia subjects became worse and worse over time. Wars began between the Shia Safavids and the larger Sunnis, particularly in the Old Kandahar region. By the late 17th century, the Safavids were heavily declining. They had appointed their Georgian subject Gurgin Khan as governor of Kandahar in order to forcibly convert the Afghans from Sunni Islam to Shia Islam, resulting in widespread oppression and violence.
It remained this way until the rise of Mirwais Hotak, a well-respected Sunni Ghilzai Pashtun tribal chief. Mirwais succeeded in defeating the declining Safavids in a succession of battles and declared southern Afghanistan a completely independent country. His son Mahmud conquered Persia for a short time in 1722, while it was ridden by civil strife and foreign interests from the Safavids' archrivals, the Ottomans and the Russians, and soon afterward, the Safavid dynasty ended.
Despite those events, there are cultural ties between the two nations extending thousands of years. As a result, an eastern dialect of Persian, Dari is one of the official dialects of Afghanistan. Many in Afghanistan celebrate Nowruz, a pre-Islamic Iranian spring celebration celebrated in many countries and regions in the world, the main representative being Balkh a province in the north of Afghanistan.
Contemporary era Afghanistan signed a treaty of friendship with Iran in 1921, when the country was ruled by King Amanullah Khan and Iran was still under the Qajar dynasty. According to the Daily Pioneer, because of the ongoing agreement between Iran and Afghanistan, their relationship has yet to be manipulated by any third party and will remain so in the future.
In an attempt to diversify the Republic of Afghanistan’s ties with the outside world, President Daoud Khan built upon Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi’s increasing interest in Afghan affairs by seeking Iranian assistance to fund Afghanistan’s seven-year economic plan. Signs of Imperial Iran’s interest in Afghanistan was allegedly apparent since the 1973 Afghan coup d'état, which saw the overthrow of King Mohammad Zahir Shah and the monarchy, the republican Afghan regime raised concerns about the Soviet Union’s influence in Afghanistan, therefore Iran was encouraged by the United States to offset Soviet influence by expanding economic and political ties with Afghanistan. After the coup occurred, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi gave financial assistance to Prince Ahmad Shah Khan, who lived in exile in the U.S. state of Virginia. Iran offered a two-billion-dollar economic aid program over a ten-year period to Afghanistan. Simultaneously, Iran’s SAVAK participated in channeling covert aid to underground anti-Daoud Islamic groups to fight against Soviet influence in Afghanistan. Iran intended to block the expansion of Soviet power not only in Afghanistan, but the entire region. In the coming years, the Afghan government cracked down on pro-Soviet leftist groups such as the PDPA, and forged closer ties with Iran and other Islamic countries in the region.
Saur Revolution and Iranian Revolution On 27 April 1978, Afghan Army units affiliated with the People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) launched an armed uprising against the Afghan President Daoud Khan. Two days after the assassination of Daoud Khan, the Shah of Iran told American presidential candidate George H. W. Bush that he viewed the Khalqist seizure of power as example of the Soviet Union's attempt to encircle Iran. On 22 August, the Khalqist faction of the PDPA led by Nur Muhammad Taraki and Hafizullah Amin launch a purge against the Parcham faction. Taraki blamed what he called a conspiracy involving China, the United States, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran. On 19 December 1978, Hafizullah Amin requested 20 million rubles in assistance to expand the AGSA and establish a "military intelligence network for the DRA in Iran, Pakistan, and some Arab countries". In February 1979, the Shah of Iran was overthrown as part of the Iranian Revolution which replaced the pro-Western but secularist Shah with the anti-American but theocratic Ayatollah Khomeini. Initially the PDPA-Khalq government wished to have good relations but after Khomeini issued a public condemnation of the Saur Revolution causing relations to sour immensely between the Shi'a Islamist government of Iran and the Pashtun dominated Marxist–Leninist atheist government of Afghanistan. On 15 March 1979, an uprising was launched in Herat city. In a phone call between Premier of the Soviet Union Alexei Kosygin and General Secretary of the PDPA, Nur Muhammad Taraki, Taraki claimed that 4,000 Iranian soldiers had entered Herat dressed as civilians asking the Soviets to send soldiers from the Central Asian republics in Afghan uniforms to help them counteract Iranian interference. In June 1979, a uprising was launched by the ethnic Hazara Shia minority in Chindawol, Kabul. The uprising was brutally crushed and over 2,000 participants were arrested and executed.
Post-1979 In December 1979, the Soviet Union sent around 100,000 troops to Afghanistan to assist the PDPA government against a nationwide mujahideen insurgency. The mujahideen were made up of various groups that were trained by Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States. The "Tehran Eight", a Shi'a mujahideen coalition took control of parts of Hazarajat in 1979 in opposition to the Communist occupation or other Sunni mujahideen groups, and had ties to the Iranian government. After the death of Khomeini in 1989, the Iranian government encouraged many of the Shi'a groups to combine and establish the Hezb-e Wahdat, hoping that they would be included in international negotiations. Between the Soviet Union's withdrawal in February 1989 and the fall from power of president Najibullah in April 1992, Iran supported the PDPA government. In the words of historian Barnett Rubin, "Iran saw the Soviet-backed Kabul government as the main force blocking the takeover of Afghanistan by Sunni Wahhabi parties backed by these three countries [Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and the United States]. Although it continued to support Shia parties politically, it did not support their making war on the Najibullah government." In the meantime, over a million Afghan refugees were allowed to enter Iran.
In the early 1990s, following the collapse of Najibullah’s Communist regime in 1992 and amid mounting economic and social strains within Iran, including rising unemployment, Afghan refugees increasingly became targets of systematic harassment by Iranian authorities. This included the denial of access to public education for Afghan children, the confiscation of identity documents, and widespread deportations, often accompanied by physical abuse and extortion, especially for those without legal status.
In an effort to manage the growing refugee population and formalize their presence, Iranian authorities issued over 500,000 temporary registration cards to undocumented or newly arrived Afghans in 1993. However, the majority of these permits were revoked by 1996, once again exposing many refugees to the risk of detention and forced removal.
Following the emergence of the First Taliban regime and their harsh treatment of Afghanistan's minorities, Iran stepped up assistance to the Northern Alliance. Relations with the Taliban deteriorated further in 1998 after Taliban forces seized the Iranian consulate in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif and executed Iranian diplomats.
War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
Since late 2001, the Afghan government under Hamid Karzai installed after the has engaged in cordial relations with both Iran and the United States, even as relations between the United States and Iran have grown strained due to American objections to Iran's nuclear program. Iran was an important factor in the overthrow of the Taliban and has since helped revive Afghanistan's economy and infrastructure.Iran 'ready' to aid Afghanistan' Kaveh L Afrasiabi. 13 March 2009. It re-opened the Iranian Embassy in Kabul and its associated consulates in other Afghan cities. In the meantime, Iran joined the reconstruction of Afghanistan. Most of its contributions are aimed at developing the Afghan Shi'a communities, especially the ethnic Hazaras and Qizilbash. Iran also has influence on political parties represented by ethnic Tajiks, which includes Abdullah Abdullah's Coalition for Change and Hope and others. On the contrary, many Afghan politicians and experts claim that both Iran and Pakistan are working to weaken Afghanistan.
Besides Afghan lawmakers, leaders in the United States and many NATO officials also believe that Iran is meddling in Afghanistan by playing a double game. Iran usually denies these accusations. For a number of years many senior ISAF officials and others have been accusing Iran of supplying and training the Taliban insurgents.Iranian weapons cache found in Afghanistan: US. 10 September 2009.Iran still supporting Afghan insurgency-U.S. Reuters 23 November 2010Iran accused of supporting Afghan insurgents
The government of Iran is strongly against the American military presence in Afghanistan.Resolute Support Mission (RSM): Key Facts and Figures NATO. Retrieved 2 December 2022 Iranian officials often criticize specifically the American military in Afghanistan: