A group of Taliban who surrendered to the authorities and joined the peace process in western Herat province has claimed that they were directed and armed by Iran to disrupt the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline.
The news agency “Fergana” with reference to Afghanistan-based media outlet Pajhwok reports that the statement was made by the militants who had laid down arms.
Police Chief Brig. Gen. Mohammad Ayub Ansar said that the eight-member Taliban group was involved in subversive activities in Pashton Zarghon and Kurkh districts of Heart. After they decided to join the reconciliation process, the group surrendered to law enforcement officials with seven weapons and eight hand grenades.
Iranian Consulate General in Herat City has already rejected the Taliban’s claim.Iranian Consul Mahmood Afkhami said Tehran has always supported the stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan and would cooperate every effort that could help the Afghanistan’s uplift.
He also demanded that the Afghan government provide proof in support of Iran’s influence on the militants’ actions to disrupt the TAPI project.
It is worthy of note that the Taliban movement officially approved the launch of the project implementation in Afghanistan.In the statement disseminated to media outlets the movement informed that they “are absolutely in favor of building the gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan and then to Pakistan and India as the project will provide jobs to thousands of Afghanistan’s residents and will supply gas to Afghanistan in the future”.
Let us recall that in early March about 70 Taliban militants expressed readiness to join the peace process in support of the TAPI gas pipeline project in exchange for jobs.
It should be noted that Iran is designing its own gas pipeline Iran-Pakistan-India, which is a direct TAPI competitor. In November 2017, during Vladimir Putin’s visit to Iran it was announced that “Gazprom” expressed readiness to participate in the construction of IPI projects. The companies made road maps and agreed memoranda.
In December 2016 Berdymukhammedov invited the Russian President to take part in the construction of the TAPI gas pipeline.However, since ISIS militants appeared in Afghanistan, the Russian leader expressed doubts in success of the project.