What is behind the strange hasty handover of the Afghan consulate in Mashhad to the Taliban?
Author: Morteza Ahmadi Zavini, “Pamir News”
“The legal process for appointing a new consul general has not yet been completed, and the person who has now taken responsibility for the consulate is the acting head,” said the head of the Iranian Foreign Ministry representative office in the northeast of the country.
Commentary by Ahmad Masumifar on some news about the transfer of the Afghan consulate in Mashhad to the Taliban: “It cannot be said that the Afghan consulate has been transferred to the Taliban. The mission of the former Consul General was long over. A new face was to be introduced to Iran. The man Afghanistan presented as its new Consul General in Mashhad did not comply with the framework of the Vienna Convention. Therefore, the Iranian Foreign Ministry did not accept this person.”
“Now one of the expert diplomats of the consulate has been temporarily appointed by the country’s leadership for supervision and is working,” he added. The legal process for appointing a new consul general has not yet been completed, and the person who has now taken office is the interim head. In the next stages, the person must be brought into the diplomatic framework on the Afghan side and, if approved by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, must begin work as the Consul General of Afghanistan in Mashhad.
It is worth noting that Ahmad Masumifar, the head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the northeast of the country, during an interview with the Iranian Donishjou News Agency [ASN], confirms that Mavlawi Faizurrahman Atai, the person presented as the head of the Afghanistan consulate in Mashhad, is associated with one of the Taliban Mavlawis, who was previously assigned to the embassy as a diplomat. Atai replaces another so-called Taliban-imposed diplomat, Dr. Salim, at the Mashhad consulate.
Dr. Salim is the same diplomat who smuggled an Iranian photographer into the Afghan consulate in Mashhad and nearly beat him to death. If this had not been discovered by chance, Iranian citizen might not be alive today. The terrorist diplomat was returned to Afghanistan from Iran without any prosecution.
The new Consul General of Afghanistan in Mashhad is also one of the three known kidnappers who several months ago tried to kidnap Qari Isa Mohammadi [a prominent anti-Taliban figure] at Mashhad International Airport in a diplomatic vehicle without the permission of the then Consul General and wanted to kill him in Afghanistan.
Now a simple question arises: why, on the last day of the previous government, such a delicate and, of course, dangerous decision was made in such a hurry, without paying attention to its consequences and dark corners? And why is this strange privilege suddenly being offered to the Taliban? Why, despite the presence of a large number of experienced, capable, and worthy diplomats, does the bird of fortune land on the shoulders of this Taliban terrorist who was officially involved in the kidnapping? Why was the leadership of the consulate transferred to such a suspicious person?
Have we ever thought that if these terrorists had managed to carry out a kidnapping operation on Iranian soil and at the international airport of the Iranian metropolis, a tragedy worse than the murder of Jamal Khashoggi would have occurred? And what would happen to Iran's reputation in the world? How can an important diplomatic center be entrusted to those who have a history of abusing the political immunity and trust of the host country to carry out terrorist purposes and operations on its territory?
One final compassionate warning: if for any reason the Taliban terrorists find such an easy way to extort and impose their will through their lobby in Iran, which they appear to have found, they first seized the Afghan Embassy in Tehran in the same manner. Further, without providing any privileges to the previous government, they received the Afghan consulate in Mashhad as a gift on the very first day of the inauguration of the Pezeshkian government.
As these covert and easy extortions continue, the Taliban's next move in Iran will be to seize the Afghan consulate in Zahedan, the capital of Sistan and Baluchistan province — a province where the Taliban have many local supporters who admire them and their extremist behavior and policies.
The problems of this province are a red line for Iranian security in the current circumstances, and... You may have heard that Amirkhan Mottaqi, an influential Taliban figure, is a graduate of the Zahidan school. Perhaps it is time for a new and compassionate Iranian government before it is too late and matters have reached a critical and irreversible point in the policy of the last three years towards Afghanistan especially the Taliban terrorists, to reconsider its decision.
