The

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

–

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

border is in length and runs from the tripoint with

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan is a landlocked country in Central Asia bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the south and southwest and the Caspian Sea to the west. Ash ...

in the north to the

tripoint A triple border, tripoint, trijunction, triple point, or tri-border area is a geography, geographical point at which the boundaries of three countries or Administrative division, subnational entities meet. There are 175 international tripoints ...

with

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

in the south. AFG-IRAN border map

Description

The border begins at the tripoint with Turkmenistan in the Harirud river before proceeding overland just to the east of the Iranian town of Taybad. The border then follows a series of short straight lines, passing through the Daryache-ye Namakzar and the Daqq-e Patergan salt lakes; two 'beaks' of Iranian territory protrude into Afghanistan along this section. The middle 'Turkish section' (''see below'') consists of a series of straight lines through a plain, with some mountains to the south, ending at Kuh Siah mountain, where the border veers sharply to the east. It cuts through Hamun Lake before turning south, where it follows the Juy-e Siksar River down to the confluence with the

Helmand River The Helmand river (Pashto/Dari: ; Ancient Greek: Ἐτύμανδρος, ''Etýmandros''; Latin: '), also spelled Helmend, or Helmund, Hirmand, is the longest river in Afghanistan and the primary watershed for the endorheic Sistan Basin. It o ...

. The border is then formed of a long straight line segment going southwest to the tripoint with Pakistan at the Kuh-i-Malik Salih mountain. The border traverses a generally arid, inhospitable region with few inhabitants, except in the Zabol-Zaranj area where the main border crossing is located.

History

The border between

Qajar Iran The Guarded Domains of Iran, alternatively the Sublime State of Iran and commonly called Qajar Iran, Qajar Persia or the Qajar Empire, was the Iranian state under the rule of the Qajar dynasty, which was of Turkic peoples, Turkic origin,Cyrus G ...

and Afghanistan was formalised in the period 1872–1935 by a series of third-party arbitrations, stemming from the

Treaty of Paris (1857) The Treaty of Paris (1857) () marked the end of the hostilities of the Anglo-Persian War. On the Qajar Iran, Persian, side negotiations were handled by ambassador Farrokh Khan. The two sides signed the peace treaty on 4 March 1857.''The Middle Ea ...

in which Iran and Afghanistan agreed to refer any dispute between them to Britain for arbitration (at this time Britain controlled large parts of India, including what is now Pakistan). A series of skirmishes between Afghanistan and Iran in the 1860s prompted the

shah of Iran The monarchs of Iran ruled for over two and a half millennia, beginning as early as the 7th century BC and enduring until the 20th century AD. The earliest Iranian king is generally considered to have been either Deioces of the Median dynasty () ...

Naser al-Din Shah Qajar Naser al-Din Shah Qajar (; ; 17 July 1831 – 1 May 1896) was the fourth Shah of Qajar Iran from 5 September 1848 to 1 May 1896 when he was assassinated. During his rule there was internal pressure from the people of Iran, as well as external ...

, to request that the British formalise the Afghan-Iran boundary. A rough delimitation was proposed in 1872 by a committee headed by Sir Frederic John Goldsmid following a line from Banda to Kuh-i-Malik Siah (a hill at the modern Afghanistan-Iran-Pakistan tripoint) via the

. Both parties eventually accepted this proposal however it was not implemented further at that time. The Goldsmid boundary proved to be inadequate, especially given the shifting of the course of the Helmand, and thus a more precise boundary was drawn up in three sections over the following decades: the northern section by General C.S. MacLean, British consul general for Khorasan and Sīstān, in 1888–91, the southern section by Colonel Sir Henry McMahon in 1903–05 and finally the middle section by

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

's General Fahrettin Altay in 1934–35. After each demarcation boundary pillars were erected, leading to a total of 172 pillars being erected in the non-riverine sections of the border. The boundary itself was not disputed after 1935, however disputes over the allocation of water resources in the region rumbled on for many years and were not finally resolved until 1973.

Border crossings

Settlements near the border

Afghanistan

* Chah Sagak *

Islam Qala Islām Qala (Pashto: اسلام کلا, Dari: اسلام قلعه) is a border town in the western Herat province of Afghanistan, near the Afghanistan–Iran border. It is the official port of entry by land from neighboring Taybad in Iran. Th ...

* Kalate-ye Nazar Khan * Kareyz-e Elyas * Komisari * Mirza Abu Bakr * Pish Robat * Tahana-e Chah-e Sangar * Zaranj

Iran

* Jannatabad, Torbat-e Jam * Kalate-ye Kabud * Kamane-ye Mohammad Khan * Kamareh Yusef * Katamak, Hirmand * Malu Pa’in * Masumabad, Zirkuh * Musaabad * Pasgah-e Kurigan * Qaleh Borj * Taybad * Zabol

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Afghanistan-Iran border Borders of Iran

International borders Historical geography of Iran