Iran-Afghanistan Opinion: Tehran's Mistaken Posturing Over the US-Afghan Pact

President Karzai & the Supreme LeaderThere's a saying in Dari, the Persian dialect spoken in Afghanistan, "Ajala kaare shaitan ast (Haste is Satan's work)". It appears, however, the Iranian regime has not heard it: the ink on the US-Afghan Strategic Partnership Agreement was hardly dry when Tehran launched a verbal attack.

On Sunday, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Ramin Mehmanparast expressed concern that the Pact may destabilise the region and called on the US to withdraw from Afghanistan immediately. Today, news broke that Iran's Ambassador in Kabul had met the head of the Afghan Senate, Fazel Hadi Muslimyar, and other legislators, asking them not to approve the Pact. The ambassador, Abdul Fazl Zuhrawand reportedly called the agreement a threat to the interests of other countries in the region, such as Russia, China, and India, as well as Iran. 

The outrage might have ended there; however, the ambassador threatened to expel millions of Afghan refugees from Iran if the Pact was approved by the Afghan Parliament, a threat rejected by the senators at the meeting. Yesterday, the Afghan Foreign Ministry summoned the envoy, as legislators denounced 'interference in Afghanistan's internal affairs' and called for the ambassador's sacking.  

Iran's posture of a "regional threat" may not work on this occasion. Russia is no longer an Afghan neighbour, after the break-up of the Soviet Union. China, far from seeing interests threatened in present circumstances, has been pumping billions of dollars into buying permits to Afghanistan's mines. India has been one of Kabul's strongest allies since the fall of the Taliban and is trying to invest billions in the country.  

And, irrespective of an examination of the reason for the presence of international troops, it may seem disproportionate for Tehran to threaten the sudden uprooting of up to three million Afghan refugees. Iranians and Afghans are brothers and sisters, sharing a long history, culture, and linguistic ties. Amidst the ramping up of war rhetoric against the Islamic Republic, Afghans, who  know first-hand of the horrors of war, would be averse to any conflict that would affect Iranians.

The posturing over the Pact may threaten rather than bolster that relationship. If Iran was looking for advantage as well as a constructive way forward, perhaps it might ask for a clause, explicitly forbidding the US from using Afghan soil or American troops stationed in Afghanistan from participation in an attack against Iran?