Link to article: https://www.cfr.org/in-brief/where-iran-stands-taliban-takeover-afghanistan
The Taliban is an Islamic terrorist group. They threaten the citizens’ political and civil rights. This creates chaos in the country because citizens never have a say and never feel fully safe. In 2021, the U.S military departed from Afghanistan leaving them to fight the Taliban on their own. The Afghanistan President, Ashraf Ghani, fled as the Taliban moved in, which allowed the Taliban to easily take over the government in Afghanistan. While this was happening, Iran was dealing with economic struggles and the 3rd wave of COVID-19. To try not to add to their own issues they kept the Afghanistan-Iran border closed. Although, they didn’t want Afghanistan refugees or didn’t fully agree with what they were doing. They were happy that the U.S left the country and are willing to work with the Taliban to keep it that way.
The U.S military forces departed from Afghanistan leaving $7.12 billion worth of military equipment behind due to a quick withdrawal. This U.S departure gave the Taliban even more control and ability to do whatever they pleased. This caused a collapsed economy and a humanitarian crisis. Due to Iran not having a positive relationship with the U.S and their decently stable relationship with Afghanistan, Iranians decided to use this as their chance to stand tall against the U.S. With the Afghans and Iranians working together they share the power in South Asia but eventually will begin to fight over who has the majority of it.
In International relations, we discuss the ways powers can be centralized and decentralized. In this case while they share power it will be more centralized but before the United States departed the control was decentralized; it was spread out between the United States, the Iranian government, the Taliban, and the Afghan government. Having a more centralized government allows for little political participation because the single entity wants all the power.