Resident Scholar  Michael Rubin

While stories of Iranian malfeasance in Iraq increasingly concern U.S. policymakers and permeate U.S. domestic media coverage, Afghanistan is almost as important for Iranian policymakers. While an Iraq free of Iranian influence would pose a challenge to the religious legitimacy of the Iranian leadership, to many Iranians, Afghanistan is even more important than Iraq in terms of Tehran's historical claim. For Iranian nationalists regardless of religiosity, Afghanistan is Iran's near-abroad, just as much as Russian nationalists believe they should have predominant influence among the territories of the former Soviet Union The history of Iran and Afghanistan are intertwined. From an Iranian perspective, Afghan independence is the result only of British interference and an accident of history.

Historical Background

To understand current Iranian strategy in Afghanistan, it is essential to understand Iranian claims to influence. Iranian interest in Afghanistan dates back millennia. What is now Afghanistan was part of the ancient Persian Achaemenid Empire. While the Arab invasion of Iran ended Persian predominance on the Iranian plateau, the Persian Samanid dynasty (819-899) reincorporated Afghanistan as a Persian-ruled domain in the ninth century. The fifteenth century Qara Qoyunlu dynasty leader Jahan Shah (r. 837-872) briefly established Herat as the capital of his Iranian domains, albeit briefly. In the early sixteenth century, the Safavid Shah Tahmasp drove the Uzbeks from Herat for a short time but, by century's end, Shah Abbas had re-asserted Iranian dominance over the city and all of western Afghanistan. Dominance went both ways. As Safavid power waned in the early eighteenth century, an Afghan commander operating from Herat conquered much of Iran, declared himself Shah, and again established the Afghan city as the capital of domains spread across both countries although again, squabbling among his sons and successors led to the city's loss.

In the early nineteenth century, the Qajar dynasty ruler Muhammad Shah (r. 1834-1848) sought to reassert Iran's claim to Herat. He marched on the city in 1837 but the international milieu had changed. British policymakers, believing India to be vulnerable to an overland invasion from Russia, were no longer indifferent to Afghan affairs. They worried that the Iranian Shah might welcome Russian transit and resolved to keep Afghanistan under informal British influence. Under British pressure, Muhammad Shah withdrew his army. . . .

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Michael Rubin is a resident scholar at AEI.