20 years ago: Iran Almost Invaded Afghanistan in 1998

[Riz]

Lesson for iran, stop fingering in every hole. Maybe some one having deadly cobra waiting for u inside

 

[Hareeb]

Whilst the Iranian military is much more competent, I agree. The conflict would have not turned out well, but I have a feeling you guys could have done a better job than NATO when it comes to reconciling with the Afghans since so many of them are ethnic Persians.

Most of Afghan land at that time was under the Taliban's control those are ethnic Pukhtoons, and were fighting pro-Iran warlords i.e. Northern Alliance, losing their territories rapidly to Taliban. Thus Iran's had to deal with Pukhtoons but not Afghans.

 

[Pan-Islamic-Pakistan]

Should Iran have taken Herat as a warning to the Taliban in 1998, or was the decision to not attack the right one?

Iran Almost Invaded Afghanistan in 1998
Tehran avoided a potentially costly war

In late 1998 Iran readied its armed forces for an invasion of Afghanistan. Last-ditch diplomacy defused tensions and prevented a potentially destructive conflict.

On Aug. 8, 1998, the Taliban, which then ruled around 90 percent of Afghanistan, seized the city of Mazar-e-Sharif. During the invasion, Taliban forces murdered 10 Iranian diplomats and a journalist in the city’s Iranian consulate.

On Sept. 3 the Taliban released five Iranian truck drivers it had taken hostage, but denied knowledge of the diplomats’ fates. Three days later, U.S. spy satellites spotted 70,000 Iranian troops and 150 tanks massing on the Afghanistan border.

“They’ve got some forces assembled and they’re making noises,” one anonymous U.S. intelligence source told the Associated Press. “They certainly are positioned for something.”

One week later, Taliban leader Mullah Omar in a letter to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan admitted the Taliban had killed the Iranian diplomats during the takeover of Mazar-e-Sharif. But Omar blamed renegade members for the massacre.

Iranians were eager for revenge. War seemed unavoidable. “I think that whether we like it or not, we are heading toward some kind of military confrontation with the Taliban,” remarked Sadegh Zibakalam, Tehran University’s professor of politics.

One hard-line Iranian newspaper argued that while Tehran needed to teach the Taliban a lesson, “this lesson must follow a thorough understanding of all the aspects and consequences.”

Omar’s admission that the Taliban killed the diplomats raised tensions by mid-September. Even though the Iranian military’s border presence rapidly rose, peaking at 200,000 on Sept. 20, Western diplomats doubted that Iran actually would launch a direct military assault. At best, they predicted, Tehran would support an assault by 8,000 anti-Taliban Afghan fighters Iran also was assembling on the border.

However, anti-Afghan proxies arguably would have posed little real danger to the Taliban. Factions that Iran supported against the Taliban in the Afghan civil war, such as the Shi’ite Hezb-i-Wahdat group, primarily were based in Bamiyan province, situated in the center of the country hundreds of miles from the Iranian border.

To make matters worse, the Taliban captured the provincial capital of Bamiyan during its stand-off with Iran.

Afghans invoked the disastrous Soviet war in the country, which had ended 10 years earlier with a demoralized Red Army withdrawing from the country. “As thousands of Iranian troops mass across the border, Afghans are preparing to turn their land into the inhospitable host that has doomed invading armies over the centuries,” Dexter Filkins reported in The Los Angeles Times in early October 1998.

“Afghan history is replete with examples of how our people sacrificed everything to defend their country,” Mullah Ajahjan Mutaasim, commander of Afghan forces on the country’s western border with Iran, told Filkins. “The Russians know this. They attacked us and got a fitting reply.”

Were Iran to have launched an incursion and captured the city of Herat, which is close to its border and has a Sh’iite Muslim minority, Naseerullah Babaar, a former Pakistani general and a Taliban founder, predicted doom for Tehran.

“Even if Iran could take Herat, then what?” Babaar asked. “If they then tried to move out from there, they would get bogged down like the Russians. They would be stuck trying to defend themselves in Herat. It’s not possible.”

A Middle East analyst in Islamabad also expressed doubt that Tehran recklessly would send its troops into the country. “The Taliban are so poor they have nothing to lose and would fight for years. On the other hand, Iranian leaders have stirred up such a storm of emotions they cannot back down now. We expect some kind of strike, but not a full-scale war.”

Facing nine divisions of the Iranian army were dug-in Taliban forces numbering just 10,000. But thousands more armed Afghans were taking up arms to resist any potential Iranian attack.

“There is no question that Iran has the capacity to attack,” said James Rubin, a U.S. State Department spokesman. “Whether they do or not is another question.”

“We are not worried about Iran,” Taliban spokesman Wakil Ahmed Mutawakil said. “Iran will not attack.”

Nevertheless, the Taliban leaders announced that if Iran did attack, they would fire surface-to-surface missiles over the border at Iranian cities. Religious scholars told Afghans that any Iranian attack would justify jihad against Iran.

Afghans briefly set aside their disagreements to face a common external threat. The Taliban even handed out guns to civilians living in the border regions with Iran.

Some predicted a region-wide sectarian war if Iran invaded, since it would pit Shia Iran against Afghanistan’s Sunni-majority population. “This would be divisive for the Muslim world,” argued Moshahid Hussein, Pakistan’s communications minister. “This is the most strategically volatile area in the world.”

Babaar speculated that the tribesmen of northeast Pakistan, who are ethnic Pashtuns like most of the Taliban’s members are, would fight Iranian troops. Then India, Pakistan’s long-time foe, would clamp down harder on Muslim separatists in the disputed Kashmir region in a bid to distract Pakistan.

Iran sought to disentangle itself from a possible war with Afghanistan while simultaneously saving face. Mohammad Khatami, Iran’s president at that time, went to the United Nations General Assembly seeking assistance from the international community.

Javad Zarif, then Iran’s deputy foreign minister, called on the U.N. Security Council and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation to play a more active role in resolving the crisis. “The military build-up in Iran is prepared to defend our national interests by all means necessary,” he said. “But we have a strong preference for a diplomatic solution.”

On Oct. 8, 1998, Tehran claimed its army on the border fought a three-hour battle with the Taliban and killed several of its fighters. The Taliban denied any close fighting had taken place but claimed that Iran launched cross-border artillery bombardments over the course of the preceding three days.

Following over a week of shuttle diplomacy Lakhdar Brahimi, a U.N. special envoy, said that tensions had abated and that the prospect of war likely had passed. After meeting with Brahimi, the Taliban released 26 Iranian prisoners.

Iran and the Taliban held talks in Dubai the following February. During the talks, Taliban spokesman Mutawakil told the Iranians that his group intended to punish the diplomats’ murderers.

https://warisboring.com/iran-almost-invaded-afghanistan-in-1998/

I am glad good sense prevailed in Iran. This would have been disastrous for Iran.

I remember reading about this in the early 2000s. This would have forced an anti-Iran jihad in Afghanistan, at a time when Iran was still relatively weak, seeking support in the region, and building its military.

Of course, Pakistan and the Arabs would be forced to take action in favor of Afghanistan.

Many years afterwards, KSA and Iran are fighting a sectarian war in Syria and Yemen, and I am glad to say that neither Pakistan nor Afghanistan are involved in this bloodbath.

Today, I have confidence that Iran has learned that it must accept the Pukhtoons of Afghanistan and learn to work with Pakistan in Afghanistan, mostly to prevent the US/Israeli occupation of Afghanistan from being permanent.

OP, your naked ethnic chauvinist agenda has no currency in Iran.

 

[Tokhme khar]

No no no no.......don't fall for that trick bro.......in Iran we say befarhang vehshee chaghu kesh loch Afghani........

You don't want to know what this means!........but we do know these harami...........for last 5000 years! you are just innocent and don't know these people......

Why don't you try after US leaves?

 

[lastofthepatriots]

No no no no.......don't fall for that trick bro.......in Iran we say befarhang vehshee chaghu kesh loch Afghani........

You don't want to know what this means!........but we do know these harami...........for last 5000 years! you are just innocent and don't know these people......

Chaghu means knife, I think. And maybe veshee means wild. So I think I might have some understanding of what you are trying to say.

 

[PakSarzameen5823]

Most of Afghan land at that time was under the Taliban's control those are ethnic Pukhtoons, and were fighting pro-Iran warlords i.e. Northern Alliance, losing their territories rapidly to Taliban. Thus Iran's had to deal with Pukhtoons but not Afghans.

Salamu Alaykum

I know, but I'm saying it would have been easier for them to get along due to the fact that so many Afghans are Persian.

 

[yavar]

 

[Mentee]

2nd I know you didn’t bother to learn the English language, but I said Pakistan harbored top al queda and Taliban leaders which is true unless you live on a different planet

Yeah at the request of the us led free world to break down the commies. Do it again if the free world decides to fight another enemy. You know we are very close friends with the Americans since Charlie Wilson's days

And yes Pakistan warlords are terrorists and terrorist sympathizers.

Dude what the heck is a Pakistani warlord?

First of all stop assuming because I bring logic to a conversation I am automatically a US military supporter. I am Iranian you moron

Too ashamed to put up your Iranian flag Mr perisa purshutum daaas ?

Are you some idiot or just have poor command in English language?
I advise you to keep persian to english dictionary all the time with you specially when you log and post in this forum.Because you do not understand the true meanings and contexts of english language apparently.
Invasion is only successful when you are able to control and get stable in the and you invaded.US is just running here and there in frustration for the past 17 years and in 2014 pulled out most of the troops in retreat.
Or you may be you are not living in this world or don,t watch too many news,tv or dont read history at all.



Good posts and we need more sane iranian people like you on this forum.

E iran is right on spot about this uncontrollable aghan myth.

Salamu Alaykum

I know, but I'm saying it would have been easier for them to get along due to the fact that so many Afghans are Persian.

A well informed Iranian just a page ago himself discarded this so many persian Afghan thing. Why do you insist?

 

[AmirPatriot]

It's a good thing Iran didn't invade. Afghanistan and its insurgents are giant-killers, against the Soviets and Americans more recently and other empires in history.

 

[Tokhme khar]

Yes.....you now know why we let go of this Afghanistan and the balochistan.

These are tribal type people man....one day with u next day against u......

We've been seeing the same behavior for last many millennia. Nothing changes! Just headaches and misery.

You can't change them. You guys are new to this game, we've played this game for thousands of years.......

Chaghu means knife, I think. And maybe veshee means wild. So I think I might have some understanding of what you are trying to say.

 

[Hack-Hook]

It's a good thing Iran didn't invade. Afghanistan and its insurgents are giant-killers, against the Soviets and Americans more recently and other empires in history.

Its good thing that we didn't invade Afghanistan but they are not giant killer . you just need to destroy their income source.
If you mean USSR ,it was USA intervention they changed the situation otherwise before that the insurgents were on receiving end.

 

[zartosht]

good decision.....

there is absolutely nothing to be gained in Afghanistan for Iran.... annexing the entire country would add almost no strategic/geopolitical value to Iran.

Afghanistan doesn't have much resources, infastracture, educated population or much of anything that makes a nation successful.

Theres a reason the Iranian government focuses westward.... That's where the geopolitical prizes are. countries with strategic territories/natural resources.

Afghanistan on the other hand has enormous value to the americans. its a perfect strategic outpost for them conveniently located right in the backyard of their current 3 biggest rivals . Iran, China and Russia.

Irans only interest in Afghanistan is to not see it become a base for hostile forces (US, Wahabis) And non geopolitical issues like narcotics/migrants/crime etc..

 

[Bahram Esfandiari]

Had Iran invaded Afghanistan back in 1998 then U.S, Israel and the Saudis with the help of Pakistan would have turned it into a protracted war to bleed Iran once again for as long as they could. I am happy that Khamenei had the foresight not to get Iran into that mess!

 

[LeGenD]

Iran dodged a bullet in this matter; wise decision. Nobody wins in Afghanistan, in the long-term.

 

[Pan-Islamic-Pakistan]

Had Iran invaded Afghanistan back in 1998 then U.S, Israel and the Saudis with the help of Pakistan would have turned it into a protracted war to bleed Iran once again for as long as they could. I am happy that Khamenei had the foresight not to get Iran into that mess!

When you compare Iraq and Afghanistan, it is like asmaan and zameen. The benefit for Iran in Iraq far outways any benefit from Afghanistan. Iran made the right decision to look westward towards Iraq, and now Syria/Lebanon.

For Pakistan it is a different history and geopolitical reality, as Afghanistan has always been our backyard since Dilli Sultanat and Mughal times. We are bounded on the Northeast and West by friendly nations, China and Iran respectively, and on the east by a mortal enemy. To prevent being sandwiched between Afghanistan and India, we have to be involved.

Also, Pukhtoons whom Iranians are wary of (throughout history) are friendly towards Pakistan.