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A picture obtained by AFP from the Iranian news agency Tasnim on January 31, 2021, shows Iran' Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (R) meeting with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar (C) of the Taliban in Tehran. - Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called for the formation of an "all-inclusive" Afghan government during a meeting with a Taliban delegation in Tehran. A delegation from the movement headed by its co-founder Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar arrived in Iran on January 26 to exchange "views on the peace process in Afghanistan" at the invitation of the ministry. (Photo by - / TASNIM NEWS / AFP) (Photo by -/TASNIM NEWS/AFP via Getty Images)

Why Iran Will Welcome the Taliban Takeover in Afghanistan

By Shelly Kittleson, a journalist focusing on the Middle East and Afghanistan.

KANDAHAR, Afghanistan—“He travels with Iranian bodyguards,” a tribal elder and local police chief alleged about a Taliban commander from his home district of Shah Wali Kot.

“He has traveled back and forth from Iran for decades. He was previously a commander near Herat” during the Taliban rule over Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001, the police chief—who requested anonymity for security purposes—told me in an Aug. 2 interview held in a secluded location for on the outskirts of the city of Kandahar.

After the former Taliban capital fell once again to the Taliban on Aug. 12, the man I interviewed was reportedly hanged.

When the Taliban took Afghanistan’s key Islam Qala border crossing

with Iran on July 9, locals reported that Iranian officials on the other side welcomed them. When on Aug. 6 it seemed the capital of Nimroz province in western Afghanistan was about to fall and many of those afraid of the Taliban rushed toward the border to escape, Iranian officials instead reportedly refused entry to most of those fleeing.