Explaining the geopolitical challenges and opportunities of water transfer from Tajikistan to Khorasan province

Perhaps in the minds of us Iranians, there are many plans and projects that, although their names are mentioned every once in a while, but they always remain at the level of words. One of these projects is the water supply plan from outside the borders of Iran. Considering that Iran is located in the dry belt of the world and three quarters of its area is dry and its annual rainfall is estimated to be 150 mm on average, this is indicative of the country's lack of water. Drought is especially evident in the east of the country. One of the ways to supply water to solve the water shortage crisis is the transfer of water from Tajikistan. Considering this issue, we first tried to investigate the challenges and opportunities facing Iran and other countries and their political-cultural relations in the region with a descriptive-analytical method and considered two main paths. The first route through Central Asia (Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan). The second route is Tajikistan and Afghanistan. This article states that considering the differences of the Central Asian countries after independence, which is the main tension over water resources for agriculture, and the important differences between Tajikistan and the two countries downstream of the rivers (Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan) and the geopolitical and geostrategic differences between Iran and Uzbekistan, this route with Many tensions and problems will be faced. On the other hand, the second path will not have less problems than the first path due to the political and economic instability of Afghanistan and hydropolitical disputes with Iran. But it can be said that with the passage of time and the establishment of powerful governments in Afghanistan and the major investments of Iran to improve the economic and social conditions of this country and ultimately make this country dependent on itself, it can be expected that this route will be cost-effective. It is more and less challenging than the route of Central Asia.