According to IRAF News Agency, Seyyed Roohollah Hosseini, Iran’s cultural counselor in Afghanistan, said on Thursday at the Kabul Conference on Environment and Water Management that challenges such as water scarcity, dust storms and climate change are inherently transboundary and cannot be contained by any country acting alone.
He described environmental cooperation as a “new language of diplomacy,” arguing that its technical and non-political nature offers a stable, low-risk framework for sustained cooperation between Iran.
A Shared Ecosystem: Integrated Management or Collective Collapse
Referring to the environmental commonalities of the two countries, Iran’s cultural counselor said: “Every dam built in Afghanistan, every drought in Sistan, and every instance of desertification in Nimruz are part of a single, interconnected chain.”
He identified the dried of the Hamoon wetlands, the deserts of Nimruz and degraded areas inside Afghanistan as the main sources of dust storms affecting eastern Iran, stressing that “these variables require no visas and recognize no borders.”
Four Pillars of Cooperation and a Vision for a Green Energy Alliance
Hosseini outlined four key areas of cooperation between the two countries: joint management of shared river basins, a coordinated anti-desertification alliance, restoration of the Hamoon wetlands, and the creation of a shared green belt.
Highlighting Afghanistan’s potential in solar, wind and high-precipitation mountainous regions, alongside Iran’s technological and water-management expertise, he proposed the establishment of a joint environmental institution drawing on satellite data, shared technical teams and international funding as a pathway toward a regional green energy alliance.
In closing, Iran’s cultural counselor described the environment and water as the region’s “long-term memory,” stressing that cooperation built on these foundations would prove more durable than any other form of agreement.
According to Hosseini, if properly understood and addressed, the environmental crisis could become the single most significant emerging geopolitical opportunity between Iran and Afghanistan.
