“Of course the natural environment’s water right and safeguarding the living status of the region’s water ponds is a different issue, about which the Iranian officials have been negotiating with the Afghan government for a long time, and fortunately the Afghan officials, too, care about their water share, because if the water ponds are dried the resulting natural phenomena, such as sand storms will be hazardous for the people on both sides of the border,” he added in response to reporters’ respective questions.
Khatibzadeh meanwhile emphasized that the issue of development of Sistan has been in the focus of attention of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s various governments and in order to pursue with the development plans for the province water is needed.
“In that respect the government has been studying and implementing numerous plans, including desalination of Oman Sea water, taking advantage of deep water resources, transferring water from other resources inside the country, and more important than all, improvement of the water usage patterns,” he added.
The foreign ministry spokesman also emphasized that the Iranian government welcomes the Afghan President’s proposal for turning the water issue into a topic for bilateral cooperation and stressed that Tehran is ready for taking any practical step in that respect.
1424
Follow us on Twitter @irnaenglish
IRNA English