Environmental Crisis Seen as Shared Geopolitical Opportunity for Iran and Afghanistan

DID Press: At a conference on “Environment and Water Management” in Kabul, Iran’s cultural attaché in Afghanistan said environmental crises are transboundary by nature and cannot be addressed by any single country acting alone.

Dr. Seyed Ruhollah Hosseini noted that when water, air, and climate come under threat, the logic of competition gives way to the imperative of “collective survival.” According to him, Iran and Afghanistan effectively share one ecological system, where developments such as dam construction, drought, and desertification create an interconnected chain that must be jointly managed or risk collapsing together.

Highlighting Afghanistan’s high vulnerability and Iran’s accelerating desertification, Hosseini described the environment as a “new language of diplomacy” between the two countries — a technical, non-political framework that could underpin durable cooperation.

He identified four priority areas: joint water management, combating desertification, restoring the Hamoun wetlands, and creating a shared green belt. He added that Afghanistan’s natural resources, combined with Iran’s technical capacity and investment potential, could support a regional partnership in energy and environmental cooperation.

Hosseini concluded that water and the environment form the region’s long-term memory, arguing that if addressed correctly, environmental crises could become a major new geopolitical opportunity for both Iran and Afghanistan.