We and Iran!

The foreign powers based in Afghanistan would not remain in our country until the end of the history, they would leave and our neighbors would remain.

Two weeks ago, three Afghan citizens lost their lives and 8 others injured when Iran’s Yazd police fired at a car carrying Afghan workers, who were smuggled into the Islamic Republic of Iran. The incident sparked a stir among cyberspace users in Afghanistan and Iran, and forced the two countries’ diplomats to put out the fire which was set in Yazd city through diplomatic channels.
Some of the consultations took place, specially after some people in the name of civil society in Helmand province under protests against the abuse of Afghan immigrants in Iran, set on fire the flag of the Islamic Republic and the image of Imam Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran. In Kabul, another group gathered in front of the Iranian embassy and stained the signboard on the front door of the embassy in red!

Following these events, Iran’s Foreign Ministry summoned Afghan ambassador in Tehran to remind the “necessary warnings”.
Below are some points in this regard and in the field of bilateral relations between the two Islamic Republics (Islamic Republic of Iran and the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan):

1. Iran and Afghanistan are the two parts of one cultural-civilizational sphere with a very long history. The relations and commonalities of the two countries are so wide in various field that it is difficult to draw a distinct identical-historical border between Afghanistan and Iran.
   Therefore, neither the inhumane and often accidental behavior of the police or even the Iranian people’s behavior towards the Afghans living in this country, nor the temporary presence of foreign powers and foreign transnational forces, including American forces in Afghanistan, have such a strong theme that can disrupt the common cultural-civilizational identity of Iran and Afghanistan or to undermine the cooperation and neighborliness of the peoples of the two countries. Relations of good neighborliness between the two countries, which are based on the deepest and most inseparable common cultural-human principles will not be overturned and changed by these measures.
2. The Afghan people are not anonymous minority, who in a despicable and shameless act, justify and execute the insult to the authority and religious values of millions of Muslims under the guise of freedom of protest rallies in the Afghan constitution and the logic of the modern world. Afghanistan is a country of millions of Muslims, who have a deep interest in the common religious values between Iran and Afghanistan and do not allow anyone to represent them in the name of the most ridiculous and subversive actions against the historical-cultural ties and bases of Identity and belief of the people of the two countries.
   Undoubtedly, civil protests and peaceful humanitarian rallies are a natural and constitutional right of the Afghan people. This right is given to them by the constitution and the adherence of our political system to the standards and requirements of human rights, but it is not logical to set fire to the images of Imam Khomeini that apparently took place for the first time in our country; because not only we as followers of Islam, but even the enemies of Imam Khomeini admit that if today there is a dignity and greatness of Islam in the world, that is because of Imam Khomeini’s efforts and selfless struggles in regaining the meaning and spirituality of Islam and the Muslims. Based on this undeniable fact, neither our religious belief, nor our moral and cultural-historical commonalities have given us such a right; specially since setting ablaze and attacking the diplomatic places that are guests of our country, implies ingratitude for 40-year hospitality of the Islamic Republic from the Afghan people, leading to the destruction of long-term political-cultural relations between the two countries.

1. On the other hand, all institutions of the Islamic Republic, including the Iranian police have no right to treat their coreligionist against the nature of Islam and the spirit of human messages of this transcendent religion, based on the same patterns and teachings, including the guidance, spiritual and moral leadership of Imam Khomeini.
   It is true that the police of Iran or any other country have the right to fight against human trafficking and to prevent the smuggling and illegal entry of foreign nationals into their country, but it should not be forgotten that illegal travel to another country does not eliminate the right and Islamic and human dignity of the travelers.
   For the past 40 years, the Iranian police have been confronting Afghan immigrants living in the Islamic Republic with poor, indefensible records that are contrary to Islamic and human teachings and the spiritual relics of Imam Khomeini. They, as expected, are not trained on the basis of full moral and Islamic standards, and in some cases requires moral rehabilitation.
   However, the Afghan people and officials do not judge all the civilized Iranian people and the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran with the problematic behaviors of the Iranian police while strongly call for a fair trial of such cases, which have devastating consequences for the cultural and political relations between the two neighboring countries.
2. The foreign powers based in Afghanistan would not remain in our country until the end of the history, they would leave and our neighbors would remain. It is natural that some of these powers, due to their 40-year enmity with Iran, use their quasi-civilian mercenary forces to darken the relations as well as the future horizon of relationships between the two countries. Preventing such groundbreaking events for foreign exploitation and managing what is happening on the basis of human and Islamic interaction is the duty of the leaders and elders of the two neighboring countries. They should refrain aggression and sending “alarming” signals to each other by showing restraint.

Neither the Iranian police have the right to throw Afghan migrants into the water or fire, nor do those under Afghan civil society covering have the right to insult the sanctity of the two countries’ historical ties, but the elders of both countries have a responsibility to prevent such incidents.