Testing a Hexbear-like thread for sharing and commenting on news. Might become a weekly thing if people like it 👀

Rules:

  • Include sources in (at least) every top-level comment
  • No clearly fake stories
  • That’s it for now
  • Xibucks arrive on the third Sunday of every month
  • Neptium
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    710 months ago

    Taliban deploys heavy reinforcements to Iran border

    Videos circulating social media on 31 May show Taliban forces heavily reinforcing the Afghan border with Iran on 31 May, after significant escalation regarding a water dispute between the two countries, which resulted in heavy border clashes between the two sides over the weekend.

    The outbreak of fighting came a week after Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi warned the Taliban to respect Iran’s rights to water from the Helmand River shared between the two countries, under the 1973 Afghan-Iranian Helmand River Treaty. Iran has long accused Afghanistan of restricting the flow of its water to Iran and causing droughts or dry spells.

    Despite videos showing reinforcements on the border, Iranian media reports suggested that some “elements are trying to provoke the parties involved with rumors and fake news.”

    • @Navaryn
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      310 months ago

      What even is the point? Do the taliban actually think they can go in the offensive against Iran? I really don’t get what’s the plan here

      • @redtea
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        510 months ago

        I’m skeptical(?) about the whole thing. I saw the story break, but as nobody had mentioned it on Lemmygrad, I did some digging.

        At the time, the only sources were the AP, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Liberty and a couple of others. So I dismissed the narrative as propaganda. If there is a conflict over the water, it’s not going to be resolved by a skirmish ffs.

        I’m not saying the skirmish didn’t happen – it probably did. Two people were killed, apparently, one from either side.

        Curious how this is happening after the US ‘withdrawal’ from Afghanistan. I wonder what military hardware ‘had to be’ abandoned in that withdrawal. Call me a conspiracy theorist but doesn’t the US have a history of clandestine support for the Taliban/brave Mujahedeen warriors? I’ll wait for the evidence before I’m confident, but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out the CIA is behind this in one way or another. They’re pissed off that Iran and Saudi Arabia are turning eastwards, together.