Iranians call for soft power now to head off future water crises

At a conference on water, Iranian officials called for moving to resolve potential water disputes with neighbors peacefully, in light of expected drought and other water problems.
Abandoned boats in Sikh Sar village at Hamoon wetland near the Zabol town, in southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan bordering Afghanistan on February 2, 2015. AFP PHOTO/BEHROUZ MEHRI (Photo credit should read BEHROUZ MEHRI/AFP/Getty Images)
Abandoned boats in Sikh Sar village sit on dry land at the Hamoun wetlands near Zabol town, in the southeastern Iranian province of Sistan-Baluchistan bordering Afghanistan, Feb. 2, 2015. - GETTY/Behrouz Mehri
Al Monitor: The Pulse of the Middle East
Al-Monitor Staff

A senior military adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called Feb. 27 for talks with Iraq and Afghanistan on water resources.

At a two-day conference in Tehran, “National Water Diplomacy and Opportunities for Hydropolitics in West Asia,” former Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Yahya Rahim Safavi said, “The issue of the scarcity of water resources may lead to … challenges among countries. In Iran, we have common water [resources] with 12 neighboring countries, which can [lead to] both interaction and tensions.”

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