A high-ranking Iranian military delegation has traveled to Afghanistan, Kabul, for talks with the Taliban rulers about border issues and mutual cooperation, amid tensions between the two sides over Tehran’s water rights from the Helmand River.

The delegation, led by Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Bahram Hosseini Motlaq, held a meeting with the deputy chief of staff of the armed forces of Afghanistan’s caretaker government, Haji Mali Khan Sadiq in Kabul on Saturday.

The ruling Taliban government in Afghanistan voiced its commitment to further cooperation with Tehran in different fields amid a dispute over Afghanistan’s violation of Iran’s water rights from the Hirmand River.

The Afghan Defense Ministry issued a statement on Saturday, after a meeting between Afghan officials and an Iranian military delegation, headed by Deputy Chief of Staff of the Armed Forces Brigadier General Bahram Hosseini Motlagh, in Kabul.

Hosseini Motlagh’s Afghan counterpart, Mali Khan Sadiq welcomed the Iranian delegation and pointed to the good cooperation and relations between the two neighboring countries, the statement read.

On Thursday, Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi had warned “the Afghan authorities and rulers” to not withhold the water rights of the Iranian people in the southeast country from Helmand, stressing the government is determined to defend the nation’s rights wherever it is.