Taliban signals support for Iran if US strikes

The spokesperson for the Islamic Taliban movement, Zabihullah Mujahid, vowed on Sunday to assist Iran if Tehran requests aid following a U.S. strike. Speaking to Radio Iran in Pashto, Mujahid stressed that the Taliban would not participate in any military retaliation against the United States.

Even if largely symbolic, the Taliban’s public support for the ayatollah regime is noteworthy, as the two represent opposite sides of the Sunni-Shia divide.

Last January, Taliban Foreign Minister Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi hosted a delegation of senior Iranian officials in Kabul, including Tehran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi – who also met with Taliban leader Mohammad Hassan Akhund. The two sides reportedly discussed strained border security and water resources, and the Iranian delegation raised the issue of millions of Afghan migrants who have fled to Iran over the past 25 years.

Mujahid said the Taliban support continued negotiations between Washington and Tehran over Iran’s nuclear program.

Much of Iran’s nuclear and missile infrastructure was destroyed during Israel’s Operation Rising Lion offensive in June 2025. The United States later joined the campaign, bombing Iran’s three main nuclear sites in what became known as the 12-day war. 

Despite Iran’s severe military losses against Israel and the U.S., the Taliban official claimed that Iran ‘won’ the 12-day war and would ‘win again’ if the United States or Israel strikes. At the time, the Taliban condemned Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear and military sites, which killed more than 20 top Iranian commanders, including the heads of the Iranian army and the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).

Following last year’s humiliating war with Israel and the U.S., the Iranian regime increased its arrests of alleged spies including reportedly some Afghan nationals who were accused of gathering intelligence for Mossad ahead of the Israeli military operations against the Iranian regime in June 2025. 

Taliban-ruled Afghanistan does not have diplomatic relations with Israel and does not recognize its existence. The Taliban have also severely oppressed people in Afghanistan, particularly minorities and women, who are denied the right to education and other fundamental human rights.

In August 2023, the Taliban celebrated their takeover in Afghanistan following former U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to pull out U.S. forces from the Islamic country. 

“On the second anniversary of the conquest of Kabul, we would like to congratulate the mujahid (holy warrior) nation of Afghanistan and ask them to thank Almighty Allah for this great victory,” Mujahid stated at the time. 

U.S. President Donald Trump has strongly criticized the Biden administration’s foreign policies and argued that the hasty U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan boosted the confidence of radical Islamists across the region and beyond.