In the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Taliban legitimization operation began long before the fall of Kabul on August 15. As early as January, senior Iranian officials welcomed a Taliban delegation to Tehran, without the presence of representatives of the government of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, in power at the time. The two parties then discussed the “Relations between the two countries”, from “Afghan migrants in Iran” and of “The political and security situation in Afghanistan and the region”. For the Shiite power of Tehran, the Sunni Taliban were already the future masters of the country, even before the withdrawal of the United States.
In the press and in official discourse, efforts have been increased to whitewash the Taliban. At the end of June, the ultraconservative Iranian daily Kayhan, whose editor-in-chief is appointed by Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, argued that the Taliban had changed and that they were not “Those we knew before, cutting off heads”. Kayhan explained on June 28 that, during the offensives led by these insurgents, “No horrendous crime has taken place, unlike the Islamic State which has committed some in Iraq”. The daily also focused on statements by the Taliban that “They would not touch the Shiites of their country”. An allusion to the massacres of the Hazara Shiite minority in Afghanistan by the Taliban, during their first reign, between 1996 and 2001. At the present time, while information coming mainly from the Afghan provinces reports persecutions against members of this minority , Tehran seems to prefer to look away.
The article of Kayhan sparked an uproar, especially on social media, in both Afghanistan and Iran, where users denounced Tehran’s change of tone towards Sunni fundamentalists. Opponents of regime hardening see similarities between Sunni extremists and the hard wing of power in Iran. Critics have hardly swayed the Iranian position. In fact, what matters to the Iranians today is above all the departure of the Americans from Afghanistan. They have finally been rid of the presence of their main enemy to the east of their territory.
Tehran is rewriting history
On August 7, Tehran went even further in its operation to “Standardization” Taliban, even rewriting history. For the first time, the anniversary of the death of Iranian television journalist Mahmoud Saremi in Mazar-e Charif (northern Afghanistan) in 1998 was marked without any mention of those responsible for the murder. At the time, Iran had almost entered into war with the Taliban who had killed, in addition to the journalist, eight Iranian diplomats, during an attack on the Iranian consulate.
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