The Iranian foreign minister is in Sistan and Baluchistan province in the southeast of the country to follow up on Iran’s water rights from the Hirmand River, which has been a source of tension with neighboring Afghanistan. 

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kan'ani said on Wednesday that the minister will have a meeting with provincial officials in the province to discuss the issue.

The spokesman said Hassan Kazemi Qomi, the Iranian president’s special envoy on Afghanistan, and Rasoul Mousavi, an assistant to the minister, accompany Amir-Abdollahian during the visit.

The Hirmand River, also known as Helmand in Afghanistan, has been at the heart of a long-running water dispute between Tehran and Kabul.

Iran and Afghanistan signed a treaty in 1973, under which Iran is entitled to receive 820 million cubic meters of water from the river per annum.

But the treaty was never implemented in full and negotiations never advanced, as Afghanistan plunged into decades of instability and various governments adopted different policies toward Iran.

The current caretaker government in Afghanistan, created by the Taliban following their takeover of the country in 2021, has announced it will remain faithful to the 1973 agreement.

But Iranian officials and lawmakers have time and again complained the country is not receiving its due share of water from the river.

On Monday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raeisi ordered the Foreign Ministry as well as the Energy Ministry to seriously pursue the dispute with Afghanistan over shared water resources.

By Press TV