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Iran's Role in Afghanistan in the Modern Era: Leveraging Influence for Regional Supremacy

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Iran's Role in Afghanistan in the Modern Era: Leveraging Influence for Regional Supremacy Iran's Role in Afghanistan in the Modern Era: Leveraging Influence for Regional Supremacy Heather MacLeod Robinson This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) at the University of St Andrews February 2020 Contents Abstract .................................................................................................................................ii Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................... iv A Note on Transliteration ................................................................................................ v Introduction ......................................................................................................................... 1 Overview and Objectives ............................................................................................................ 1 Methodology and Source Discussion .................................................................................... 5 Western Archival Sources .......................................................................................................... 6 Iranian and Afghan Primary Sources ................................................................................. 12 Media Materials and Databases ............................................................................................ 14 Chapter One: The Conceptual Framework for Iran’s Role in Afghanistan .. 16 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 16 ‘Myth of the Great Civilisation’ .............................................................................................. 20 ‘Myth of Foreign Domination’ ................................................................................................ 21 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 27 Chapter Two: Early Perso‐Afghan Relations and Great‐Power Domination of Iran and Afghanistan (1747‐1941) ...................................................................... 29 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 29 The Role of Afghanistan in Persia’s Fall from Regional Dominance ..................... 30 The Great Game: Great‐Power Competition and its Impact on Nineteenth Century Persian‐Afghan Relations ...................................................................................... 38 Persia, Afghanistan, and the Great Powers at the Turn of the Century ............... 52 Persia and Afghanistan Begin a Bilateral Relationship .............................................. 56 Reza Shah and the Formalization of Iranian‐Afghan Relations (1921‐41) ....... 61 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................................... 70 Chapter Three: Iran’s Afghanistan Policy and Regional Leadership under Mohammad Reza Shah (1941‐1979) ........................................................................ 71 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 71 The Regional Dynamic: Great Power Competition for Influence ........................... 72 The Nixon Doctrine, Iran’s Western Alignment, and Iran’s Regional Primacy 76 The Afghanistan Problem ........................................................................................................ 80 Iran, the United States, and Soviet Encroachment in Afghanistan ........................ 87 The Afghan Coup of 1973 ........................................................................................................ 88 Leveraging the Coup with the Americans ........................................................................ 91 i Iranian Foreign Policy toward the Afghan Republic: 1973‐1978 .......................... 99 Pashtunistan, Baluchistan, and Dominating Daoud .................................................. 100 Iranian‐Afghan Rapprochement: Economic Aid and the Indian Ocean Cooperative ................................................................................................................................ 117 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 122 Chapter Four: Iran’s ‘Export of the Revolution’ to Afghanistan, 1982‐1987 ............................................................................................................................................. 124 Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 124 Background ................................................................................................................................ 125 Developing Influence: Iran’s Strategy in Afghanistan from 1979‐1981 .......... 126 Early Political Support for the Afghan Mujahidin .................................................... 128 Early Material Support to the Afghan Mujahidin ...................................................... 135 Iran and Afghanistan’s Bilateral Relations Until 1982 ............................................ 141 Consolidating Control and Comparative Advantage: Iranian Influence in Afghanistan from 1982‐1987 ............................................................................................. 147 Iran’s Political Stance on Afghanistan: The Iranian ‘Proposal’ and the Geneva Accords .................................................................................................................................... 148 Iran’s Material Support for the Afghan Mujahidin—A Lesson in Exporting the Revolution ............................................................................................................................... 157 Domestic Conditions: The Rise of the Clerical Elite and the IRGC ................... 158 Iranian Base of Support for the Afghan Resistance: the Ulema Connection, Weaponisation of Refugees, and the Military Apparatus ........................................ 164 Iranian Support for the Afghanistan-based Resistance: the West and the Hazarajat .................................................................................................................................. 176 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................... 191 Conclusion ....................................................................................................................... 192 Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 202 Western Archival Sources .................................................................................................... 202 British Archival Records: ...................................................................................................... 202 American Archival Sources: ................................................................................................ 202 International Organizations Sources .............................................................................. 206 Select Iranian and Afghan Sources ................................................................................... 206 Western Secondary Sources ............................................................................................... 207 Media Sources ........................................................................................................................... 211 ii Abstract This dissertation provides an in-depth historical analysis of the motivations and actions surrounding Iran’s foreign policy toward Afghanistan in the modern era. The need for this research stems from a significant gap in Western scholarship on the Iranian-Afghan relationship that accounts for any period of the countries’ interactions in detail. It is argued here that despite rhetoric to the contrary, successive Iranian governments consistently pursued policies of political, military, and economic interference in Afghanistan as an integral part of Iran’s desire to achieve a dominant position of leadership in its region. This persistent approach has been grounded in both the historical experience and the mythology surrounding Iran’s once-great status as an empire, which was destroyed by the Afghans and the great powers during the colonial period, and the resultant Iranian irredentism toward Afghanistan that followed. In analysing the course of Iran’s policy toward Afghanistan, a defining feature is that it has never been divorced from Iran’s competition against the great powers that have continuously been involved in Afghanistan and the region. This work first provides a long-view historical context of the Iranian-Afghan relationship, which demonstrates that since Afghanistan separated from the Persian Empire in 1747, Afghanistan held an important place of relevance in the perpetuation of myths that underpin the persistent ideology of Iranian nationalism, which manifest in an Iranian foreign policy of interventionism toward Afghanistan. This, combined with the continued strategic importance of Afghanistan to the great powers
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