Iran’s newly found freedom in Afghanistan is all about regional dominance
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Alaina
- . July 17, 2021
- . Update: July 17, 2021 11:54 pm
Now that foreign countries are announcing their exits from the Afghan land, it is becoming obvious that Iran and its allies are increasing its interests in Afghanistan. Iran has always seeked regional dominance and controlling Afghanistan, taking care of its internal matters, might be one of the ways it can start living its dream of power dominance over it.
The biggest withdrawal from the country is of the United States, which had announced retrieving its soldiers and guards from the country after nearly two decades. Of course, with a loose power on the field, there are others who will seek the control of the ship and soon after American exit, regional powers may hope to fill the void.
It was well established that Iran is Afghanistan’s top trading partner and as a neighbour, it had always influenced the Afghn leaders to its favour. Aware of the recent activities in the country, Iran is pushing for Taliban assembly and is somehow also playing with the mind of Afghanistan’s government.
It is not very surprising for Iran to support a group like Taliban but in the last few years, when the Iranian residents were observing a surge in violent activities due to the Taliban, it was expected that Iran would finally put a full stop to its relations with the dangerous group but nothing of that sort has happened.
In fact, Iran seems to be more into Taliban than ever as it continues to fund and harbour Talibani leaders. After the US troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan, it affected the nation a lot. The administrative system, economy and the safety of residents is highly compromised now especially after reports showed that Taliban has already claimed more than 85 percent of the land and are continuing to progress furthermore.
The government however holds merely 17.9 percent of the country’s land, claims a report by a foundation called Defense of Democracies. This is serving as the perfect opportunity for Iran who hosted a meeting with envoys in the capital earlier this month discussing the positioning of itself in Afghanistan.
They also reportedly discussed the restoration of Taliban-led tehratic government, which will essentially reverse all that the US has done in 20 years. Whatever led to the US coming to Afghanistan, its stay surely helped Taliban shadow itself from the residents and back-off for a while.
Iran believes that if it happens to control the Taliban and hence get control over Afghanistan, it will have an upperhand in the region and will be benefiting a lot from the country. Afghanistan has a crucial geographical location which is envied by many in the region. It has been a soft target for Iran since way before and with the US troops emptying the land, it has become all the more easy for Iran to expand its wing towards the South East Asian countries. Not only will Iran be able to control Afghanistan’s administrative deals but also cover neighbouring countries and its relations with Kabul.
