A post on the X account of Iran’s Supreme Leader on Monday warned Muslim states against aiding Israel or blocking Gaza aid, as Iran's foreign minister accused the Jewish state of imposing starvation on civilians and described its actions as war crimes.
“Today isn’t the time to remain silent regarding Gaza,” the post on Khamenei's official X account. “Muslim governments have heavy responsibilities. If any Muslim government backs the Zionist regime in any form and blocks aid to Palestine, they must know with certainty that an eternal mark of disgrace will stain their reputation.”
His comments came amid a worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, during a war that began after Hamas-led militants attacked Israel on October 7, 2023.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza warned Sunday that hundreds could die as hospitals fill with patients weakened by hunger and collapsing aid access, while the UN said civilians face starvation without urgent assistance.
According to the ministry, at least 67 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire as they waited for UN aid trucks in northern Gaza on Sunday. The Israeli military campaign in Gaza has since killed over 58,000 Palestinians, according to local health officials.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi condemned the incident in a post on X on Monday, calling it “a blatant example of war crimes and crimes against humanity.”
Araghchi said Israel had used measures such as depriving civilians of water, medicine, and food, and blamed both the United States and Israel for what he called “death traps” at aid distribution sites.
In a separate statement on Telegram, Araghchi said he spoke with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, who currently chairs the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and called for an emergency OIC summit to address what he described as “genocide in Gaza” and “Israeli aggression in the region.”
According to the UN International Organization for Migration, nearly 700,000 Afghans were deported from Iran in the first half of 2025. A full 130,000 were expelled within just one week after the 12-day war between Iran and Israel. Many had lived in Iran for decades.
Far from an aberration, the recent wave of arrests, public humiliation and mass expulsions of Afghan migrants is a continuation of Tehran's decades-old political manipulation of one of the most vulnerable populations in the region.
The Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini famously declared that "Islam has no borders" and welcomed Afghan refugees fleeing a Soviet invasion in 1979.
But beyond this ideological gesture, Tehran never offered a clear legal or humanitarian framework for integration. Millions of Afghans entered Iran, only to be denied citizenship, legal employment or access to education and healthcare.
Over the decades, Afghan migrants have been treated as expendable tools in Tehran’s shifting policies in the region.
They were recruited to fight in Syria as part of the “Fatemiyoun” Brigade, exploited as cheap undocumented labor inside Iran and periodically threatened with mass expulsion in bouts of official populism.
During moments of domestic discontent, Afghan migrants became convenient targets to deflect public anger.
Under President Ebrahim Raisi, the policy of exploitation took on new dimensions. In the wake of the Taliban's return to power in 2021, a massive influx of Afghan refugees entered Iran and as many as around two million Afghans crossed the border within two years.
Rather than developing a comprehensive migration policy, Tehran allowed its border regions to turn into chaotic transit points run by smugglers and corrupt officials.
Xenophobia
In the aftermath of Israel’s devastating strikes on Iranian military and nuclear sites, domestic frustration reached boiling point.
The Islamic Republic, seeking to redirect the public's discontent, amplified xenophobic narratives portraying Afghans as a threat to national security.
Despite isolated claims of rising crime among Afghans, official figures show otherwise.
Iran's judiciary reports that Afghan nationals comprise only about 6% of the prison population—roughly in line with their proportion of the total population. The majority of these arrests are for undocumented entry or labor violations, not violent or organized crime.
Ghosts of policies past
In 2001, following the fall of the Taliban, I traveled to the border town of Taybad and the nearby Islam Qala crossing and I was able to personally witness the brutal consequences of this policy.
There, I saw mass graves of Hazara refugees who had been forcibly returned by the Islamic Republic and summarily executed by Taliban fighters in the deserts surrounding the town.
Tehran knew that these Shia Hazaras were at extreme risk, yet still arrested them in Iranian cities, detained them in camps in the east and deported them into the hands of their eventual killers. This memory haunts me to this day.
The recent expulsions have also generated heartbreaking testimonies. Haajar Shademani, a 19-year-old Afghan born in Shiraz, told AFP she was forced to leave the only home she ever knew.
Denied access to Iranian universities and now blocked from education under Taliban rule, she faces an uncertain future.
The Islamic Republic’s interference in Afghanistan has extended far beyond its borders. Over the past two decades, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), through its Ansar Corps based in eastern Iran, has pursued an interventionist policy in Afghan affairs.
Military and intelligence advisors operated on the ground while the Ministry of Foreign Affairs established a dedicated Afghanistan Affairs Office, often in conflict with the IRGC’s goals.
These interventions disrupted Afghanistan’s internal balance and forced thousands more civilians to flee.
Moreover, Tehran deliberately resettled the families of Afghan political and military elites inside Iran, creating dependencies that undermined Afghan sovereignty.
This too was part of a broader strategy: open-door policies were never humanitarian in intent—they were designed to serve Iran’s strategic interests.
As Tehran continues to wage psychological warfare against Afghan migrants, reports of mob violence, arson, and public beatings have become more frequent.
In this climate of state-sanctioned hostility, ultra-conservative media figures portray any defense of Afghan rights as treason.
Policymakers and human rights advocates in Washington and European capitals should call out Tehran's exploitation of Afghan refugees.
This community is not a plaything—Afghans are survivors of a conflict-plagued country, and their dignity must not be sacrificed for political expediency.
Afghan migrants deserve justice, protection, and the chance to live free from fear—not another generation of displacement and death.
