Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi met with Iranian President Pezeshkian this week in Tehran, marking a significant development in the evolving relationship between the ruling authorities in Afghanistan and the government of Iran. The meeting, confirmed by official statements from both the Taliban’s foreign ministry and Iranian state media, focused on regional stability, trade, border security, and the management of refugee flows, issues that have grown in urgency since the Taliban’s return to power and the humanitarian crisis that ensued after the withdrawal of US and allied forces in August 2021 (IRNA, July 2024; Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan MFA, July 2024).
This latest diplomatic engagement underscores Tehran’s ongoing campaign to expand its influence throughout the region by forging pragmatic ties with actors on its periphery, regardless of sectarian differences or historical tensions. Iran’s leadership, under Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the newly elected President Pezeshkian, views engagement with Afghanistan’s rulers as a means of managing security concerns on its long eastern border while simultaneously demonstrating regional leadership and consolidating its role as a power broker amongst authoritarian and Islamist governments. For the Taliban regime, which remains diplomatically isolated and unrecognized by nearly all Western and international governments, the visit presented an opportunity to court legitimacy, attract investment, and secure support from one of its most powerful neighbors.
Taliban-Iranian rapprochement comes amid a broader context: Iran is at the center of what Israeli and Western authorities describe as the “Axis of Resistance”—a complex network of militias, terror groups, and allied governments spanning the Middle East, including Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthis in Yemen, and Iran-backed militias in Iraq and Syria. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and senior defense officials have repeatedly warned that Iran’s regional activities, underpinned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), directly undermine stability and present an existential threat to Israel and Western interests. The Taliban’s willingness to engage with Iran’s leadership, despite sectarian differences, highlights the shifting landscape in which pragmatism prevails over ideology, with mutual antagonism toward Western liberal values and democratic norms serving as a uniting factor (Israeli PMO statements, US State Department reports).
The engagement gains added significance in light of recent history. The return of the Taliban to power after the rapid collapse of the US-backed Afghan government in 2021 triggered a massive refugee exodus, regional instability, and a new wave of cross-border tensions. Iran now hosts millions of Afghan refugees, straining resources and stoking the anxiety of local communities. Both sides have been eager to avoid open confrontation, even as they contest issues like water rights, narcotics trafficking, and the treatment of ethnic and religious minorities—including Afghanistan’s Shi’a Hazara population, historically persecuted by the Taliban (UNHCR, Human Rights Watch). However, the willingness to convene at the highest diplomatic level signals a deliberate attempt to manage these disputes in pursuit of broader strategic gains.
Western intelligence agencies remain acutely concerned that the Taliban’s international isolation has made it increasingly reliant on partnerships with Iran, China, and Russia. Surveillance by American and allied forces has documented increased Iranian activity along the Afghan border, including alleged arms transfers and exchanges of intelligence. With Afghanistan’s soil historically used by al-Qaeda and other transnational jihadist groups, and continued reports of extremist safe havens, US and Israeli officials warn that the region could once again become a springboard for international terror threats. For its part, the Taliban insists it does not allow Afghan territory to be used against neighboring states, yet has failed to convincingly demonstrate action against groups such as al-Qaeda and the Islamic State Khorasan Province (State Department Country Reports on Terrorism, United Nations Analytical Support and Sanctions reports).
Israel’s leaders stress that Iran’s network of proxies—including recent escalations by Hamas and Hezbollah and stepped-up Houthi attacks on maritime traffic—should be viewed as part of an integrated Iranian strategy to challenge Israel and destabilize the regional order. The October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, resulting in the massacre of Israeli civilians and mass hostage-taking, remains a stark reminder of the consequences of unchecked terror sponsorship and the failure of the international community to isolate those committed to the destruction of the Jewish state. Israeli officials point to the Taliban’s refusal to recognize Israel and its hostile rhetoric—along with its growing ties with Tehran—as further indication of the continued alignment of regional actors against the values of democracy, openness, and lawful self-defense (IDF, Israeli MFA, US CENTCOM press releases).
Diplomatic sources note that, for Iran, greater influence in Afghanistan serves both practical security needs—border management, curbing refugee flows, and fighting narcotics gangs—and strategic ambitions, namely projecting power against the United States and Israel and reinforcing the narrative of an ascendant axis confronting the perceived decline of Western resolve. President Pezeshkian’s outreach to the Taliban fits a pattern of opportunism that has come to characterize Iran’s foreign policy since the 1979 revolution, as Tehran seeks partners of convenience—be they Sunni, Shi’a, or secular—when confronting outside pressure (Council on Foreign Relations; Brookings analysis, 2024).
While the two sides have clashed in the past, notably during the 1990s when Iran nearly intervened militarily against the Taliban over the killing of Iranian diplomats, today’s relationship is marked by careful diplomatic engagement and an emphasis on mutual benefit. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs continues to clarify that its ties with the Taliban remain a function of necessity, not recognition, but the determination to find common ground is unmistakable. Taliban officials, eager for cross-border investment and relief from international sanctions, present this dialogue as a legitimate exercise in foreign policy, with the hope of encouraging China and Russia to further normalize their relations with Kabul (Reuters; IRNA).
Analysts stress that the expansion of relations between Iran and the Taliban highlights the vacuum left by the withdrawal of Western security guarantees and the slow-footed humanitarian and diplomatic response from US and European capitals. Israel, always vigilant to shifts in the security architecture across its extended region, is recalibrating its strategies to account for the possibility that Afghanistan may again emerge as an ungoverned space for planning or supporting acts of international terrorism, potentially with Iranian facilitation (INSS, Israeli Defense Policy Briefs).
The risks are not only theoretical. According to recent reports by the United States and United Nations, transnational criminal and terror networks have utilized Afghan territory for the shipment of arms and narcotics to Middle Eastern theaters, while Afghan nationals have been detected fighting within various Iranian-affiliated militias in Syria and Iraq. The overlap of criminal and terrorist activity, exacerbated by the absence of meaningful oversight or international mechanisms for securing Afghanistan’s borders, creates fertile ground for future Iranian exploitation, with downstream threats to Israel, Jordan, and Gulf partners (UNODC, US Department of Defense Inspector General Reports).
Human rights organizations continue to document widespread abuses within Afghanistan—particularly toward women, girls, and religious minorities—with both Iran and the Taliban routinely highlighted for egregious violations. Western governments and civil society groups caution that normalization of ties with the Taliban risks emboldening a regime that remains out of step with international law and universal values. Israel and its Western allies insist that engagement with such regimes should be conditioned on concrete improvements—cessation of support for terror, respect for basic rights, and clear security guarantees—lest the region slide further into normalized extremism, state-sponsored violence, and lawlessness (Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, US State Department).
As the Taliban-Iran meeting concludes, Israeli and Western officials reiterate their core message: the Iranian regime’s efforts to harness its alliances—including with Afghanistan’s rulers—represent a test not only for regional stability, but for the values and credibility of the democratic world. The determination of Israel to defend its sovereignty and citizens—whether against rockets from Gaza, infiltration from Lebanon, drones from Yemen, or new threats from Afghanistan—anchors the security architecture of the free world. The broader Western alliance must recognize that the axis led by Iran, fueled by partnerships with groups and governments opposed to democratic norms, remains the preeminent threat to peace and the international order. It is this context—a contest for security, values, and the rule of law—that frames the significance of unfolding Taliban-Iranian ties, as the world confronts a new era of instability and strategic rivalry.
