Iran has resumed fuel exports to Afghanistan following a request from the new Afghan government, which feels empowered by the US withdrawal to buy the sanctioned nation’s oil more openly, an Iranian official said.
The Sunni Muslim group seized power in Afghanistan as the United States and its allies withdrew troops after a 20-year war.
The price of gasoline in Afghanistan reached $900 per tonne as many Afghans were driven out of cities, fearing reprisals and a return to a harsh interpretation of Islamic law the Taliban imposed when in power 20 years ago.
To counter the price spike, the new Taliban asked Shia Iran to keep the borders open for traders.
The Taliban sent messages to Iranian traders and to an Iranian chamber of commerce, which has close links to the government: “You can continue the exports of petroleum products,” Hamid Hosseini, a board member and spokesman of Iran’s Oil, Gas and Petrochemical Products Exporters’ Union, in Tehran said.
As a result, the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA), which is a part of the government, lifted a ban on fuel exports to Afghanistan, which had been in place since August 6 because of Iran’s concerns about the safety of trading in the country. Those concerns have been eased by the Taliban’s attitude, Hosseini said.
Iran sits on the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves but the latest round of US sanctions imposed by former US President Donald Trump in 2018, has significantly reduced Iranian oil exports.
Iran has nevertheless managed some trade, notably by trucking fuel to neighbours such as Afghanistan and the US troop withdrawal has made leaders of Iran and Afghanistan less nervous about dealing more openly, Hosseini said.
The main Iranian exports to Afghanistan are gasoline and gasoil. Iran exported about 400,000 tonnes of fuel to its neighbour from May 2020 to May 2021, according to a report published by PetroView, an Iranian oil and gas research and consultancy platform.
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