IRAN’S PRAGMATIC ENGAGEMENT WITH THE TALIBAN AFTER THE U.S EXIT CHALLENGES AND DETERMINANTS

Abstract

The withdrawal of United States forces from Afghanistan in august 2021 led to a dramatic shift in the Afghan political landscape. The aim of this study is to analyze the Iranian foreign policy towards Afghanistan. The main questions being: What are the challenges between Iran and Taliban? And what are the determinants of Iranian foreign policy towards Afghanistan after the U.S. exit? Whereas, the motivating factors for Iran are both Internal such as economic uplift to counterweight western sanctions through bilateral and multilateral trade guaranteeing national security and territorial integrity by neutralizing Extremist Islamic radical offshoots (IS-K) and separatist organizations (Jaish-Ul-Adl). Further part of this study also highlights the external factors trying to fill the vacuum left by the United States, and in the meanwhile analyzing Iran’s role as well. In order to analyze the problem the assistance of current literature available on the web was opted where the tool of thematic analysis was utilized to generate codes leading to construction of proper themes potential of providing the outcomes of the research problem. Although various researches have been carried out in this area, but their findings were restricted to the explanation of Iran’s potential security vulnerabilities associated with the change in Afghanistan's political landscape. This study also seeks to analyze the benefits Iran may procure from Afghanistan under the new administration while keeping into account the potential barriers as well, while considering the role of other regional actors as well. This study has the potential of having political and academic implications as it leads to further questions that would pave ways for conduct of further studies in this area with the primary anchoring point being modes of security for instance Iran’s economic security with respect to Afghanistan