What Is Happening in the Region, and Where Is Afghanistan Being Led?
Source: Afghanistan International
The role of the major colonial powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, as well as their intelligence networks, in Afghanistan’s wars has been exposed and examined to a considerable extent. Oil companies, proxy wars, mercenary fighters, and their intermediaries, however, have received far less attention and scrutiny from the media.
Yet their role has been broader and more consequential than many other aspects of these events. Indeed, after victory in one confrontation or another, employees and intermediaries of these companies would end up occupying senior government positions. One would become an ambassador, another would be appointed viceroy of a conquered country, while others would become prime ministers and presidents. Power would also be handed over to the very groups and mercenary fighters whom they had selected and recruited.
Recently, Delta, a company linked to Saudi Arabia, signed a $200 million contract with the Taliban Emirate for the extraction of oil and gas in the Kashk and Tirpul area.
One noteworthy aspect of the deal was the presence at meetings concerning the contract of a former U.S. ambassador in Kabul and former employee of the American company Unocal, who acted as an intermediary. Even more noteworthy was Washington’s statement that he was neither a U.S. official nor a representative of Washington.
Saudi Arabia’s response was likewise one of silence, with no public comment on the contract. Neither the Saudi ambassador in Kabul nor any other representative of the kingdom attended the meetings, and no statement was issued either confirming or denying the agreement. Yet the comments and praise coming from the Emirate regarding the scale and provisions of the agreement were particularly striking. This is all the more remarkable because they had already seen and experienced the consequences of similar agreements thirty years ago, during their first period in power. This is not the first experiment of its kind; rather, it is a repetition of an experience stretching back more than half a century, one that has played a significant role in Afghanistan’s instability and proxy wars.
Examples from Historical Experience
Fifty-five years ago, toward the end of Zahir Shah’s absolute monarchy, the United States, which held concessions for projects in southern and western Afghanistan, began oil and gas exploration there in view of the importance of the region’s reserves. The necessary infrastructure was constructed, and the initial steps were taken. However, serious objections from Reza Shah Pahlavi led to the work being halted midway. The reason was that Iran at the time served as America’s “gendarme” in the region and was even more important to the United States than Israel. Oil and gas extraction in the Badghis and Herat areas could have had a significant impact on Iran’s reserves, since these territories are adjacent and geologically interconnected.
Five years later, during the rule of Sardar Daoud, when the Russians took the place of the Americans, they too began preliminary exploration and preparations for extraction in the same region. However, fortune was not on their side, and the work remained unfinished. The coup against Daoud, the unsuccessful rule of the communists, the subsequent occupation of Afghanistan, and nearly fourteen years of war left no opportunity for the company associated with them, Gazprom (“Sangar”: Gazprom did not exist at the time; the Soviet gas industry was administered by the Ministry of the Gas Industry), to gain control over the region.
When proxy groups entered the scene and their proxy wars began, major international oil companies such as Unocal and Bridas brought their rivalry to Afghanistan. Bridas succeeded in winning over the Jabal-us-Siraj coalition. The company sought to persuade the rulers in Kabul to accept a project under which Turkmen oil and gas would be transported, under Bridas’s management, through Badghis and Herat to Pakistan and India. The parties reached an agreement without making it public. Gifts, inducements, and initial financial assistance did their work.
The agreement, however, did not remain secret for long. American media soon reported that in early 1996 Bridas had paid one million dollars to the government of Burhanuddin Rabbani. According to Bridas, the money was assistance intended to provide fuel for the winter. However, in the Bridas v. Unocal case before a U.S. court of appeals, the payment was mentioned in connection with an agreement granting Bridas the right to construct oil and gas pipelines across Afghan territory.
Other sources revealed further details of this secret deal. According to them, Bridas offered one million dollars to a prominent member of the Jabal-us-Siraj coalition to create obstacles for the Unocal project and, should Unocal secure the contract, to prevent the pipeline from being built.
On the other side, the American company Unocal and Saudi Arabia’s Delta established the multinational CentGas consortium (Central Asia Gas Pipeline Ltd.) in 1997 to transport Turkmen oil and gas. The largest stake, 46.5%, belonged to Unocal, while Delta held another 15%. Each of the other partners — including Turkmenistan, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, and Pakistan — held a stake of 7% or less.
A 10% stake had also been envisaged for Russia, but this seemed almost like a joke, since the consortium had originally been created as a counterweight to Russia’s Gazprom and with the aim of ending Moscow’s complete dominance over Central Asia’s resources. Russia therefore announced fairly quickly that it would not participate in the consortium. As a result, the 10% stake intended for Moscow was added to the American share of 46%, raising it to 56%.
Unocal sided with the Taliban, invited its delegation to the United States, and hosted its members with gifts and other offerings. Overall, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Britain, the United States, and Pakistan jointly played a role in the creation of the Taliban movement. The group was formed in Quetta, Pakistan, from among the Durranis of Kandahar, with Britain and Saudi Arabia seeking to restore Afghanistan’s former monarchy and bring the deposed king back to the country. The Taliban agreed to this plan. It was for this reason that Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Pakistan recognized its government.
Delta was confident that all of Turkmenistan’s oil and gas resources would come under its control. Such a prospect was unacceptable to Moscow and Tehran. They therefore increased their assistance to Massoud and Rabbani severalfold in their confrontation with the Taliban. Every day, several Russian aircraft loaded with Russian weapons and ammunition, as well as Afghan banknotes printed in Russia, arrived in Kulob via Mashhad. From there, the supplies were transported to Khwaja Bahauddin in Takhar.
Now, nearly three decades later, Delta has returned to Afghanistan. The former intermediary has returned with it, and the project to connect Turkmenistan, Herat, Kandahar, Pakistan, India, and Gwadar is once again under consideration. The geopolitical continuity and connection between the current project and the plan of the 1990s are therefore clearly visible.
On September 7, 2026, the Taliban’s Ministry of Mines and the Saudi company Delta International signed a contract for oil and gas exploration and extraction in the Kashk–Tirpul area of Herat. An initial investment of $200 million was announced. A former U.S. ambassador in Kabul was also present at the signing ceremony. His presence was not unexpected. On October 24, 2025, the same former ambassador had attended a meeting with Abdul Ghani Baradar alongside Delta’s CEO, Shaher Al-Taqi, where “gas exploration, extraction, and the construction of a pipeline” were explicitly discussed.
Delta’s current project is not limited to the extraction of Afghan gas. According to statements by Taliban officials, Delta intends to purchase Turkmen gas within the framework of TAPI, increase the production capacity of Turkmenistan’s gas fields, build a pipeline from Herat to Spin Boldak, then extend it through Pakistan to the Indian border, and establish a major gas hub in Gwadar. The project is so vast in scale that its implementation would require an investment of $50 billion.
How can one believe that this company would dare to undertake an investment of such magnitude without the authorization and approval of the U.S. and Saudi governments? This is particularly striking given that the United States does not recognize the government in Kabul and goes even further, asserting that the Kabul government supports terrorism and terrorists, and that investment in the country benefits terrorists.
These companies choose countries that have neither a principled and lawful system of government, nor a government enjoying the support of the people, nor a constitution, nor a representative council, nor a strong and unified central authority. This enables them, by buying off a handful of powerful figures, to bring the entire government and state apparatus under their control and do whatever they wish. This is precisely what has happened now: by recruiting and enlisting several influential individuals, they have managed to secure a contract that they had previously been unable to obtain even through extensive military, political, and financial efforts.
It can be said with certainty that, as in the past, this contract will bring prolonged and extensive proxy wars to the Afghan people. The company’s rivals will not remain idle or stand by as indifferent observers. Such contracts can be implemented without serious obstacles only when they are concluded with a legitimate government that derives its authority from the will of the people. Governments created and imposed through foreign money and weapons can never legitimately bargain away values and resources that belong to the entire nation, make deals with one party or another, and expect to avoid the harmful consequences of such arbitrary arrangements. Even when a person sells his own private home to someone else, he is, in principle, obliged to take into account the consent and interests of his neighbor.
Yet Afghanistan’s situation today is such that a handful of powerful figures from a single group can sell the country, its values, and its natural resources — at one time to America, at another to Russia and China, then to India, Pakistan, Iran, or Saudi Arabia — without consulting the people or submitting such major national issues for consideration by a representative body of the nation.
It should be borne in mind that Russia seeks to preserve its dominance and monopoly over Central Asia’s energy export routes and is trying at any cost to prevent the oil and gas of these countries from being transported southward through Afghanistan.
Iran is an even more determined opponent of this project than Russia and, over the past several decades, has invested more than the Russians in efforts to prevent it from materializing. Tehran will not allow itself to permanently lose two enormous markets — Pakistan and India.
Delta, Unocal, and any other company will be able to succeed only if such a major national deal is concluded with a legitimate government rather than with one party to a war, and if the contract itself is awarded through an open competitive bidding process among rival companies rather than, as in the past, through bribery and the buying off of a handful of powerful figures. If they believe that Russia, China, and Iran have become so weak that they are now entirely incapable of taking action against them, this would undoubtedly be a grave mistake and an unfounded confidence in their own power.
They signed this contract in Herat, but immediately afterward the Houthis took control of Bab el-Mandeb and launched attacks against Saudi Arabia. There was even a drone attack in the direction of Mecca. Saudi Arabia signed a defense pact with Turkey and Pakistan, and now Mohammed bin Salman is heading to Egypt, where he intends to ask that country to participate in the ongoing war.
Meanwhile, security officials from Qatar and Turkey are arriving in Kabul. Without doubt, one of the objectives of their sudden visit will be to persuade the Taliban to choose alignment with Turkey and Saudi Arabia instead of India and Iran. It remains unclear whether the Taliban will maintain their previous cooperation with Tehran or change their former course and conclude that joining an anti-Iran coalition would be advantageous. It is also unclear what role they would play if they were to choose this path.
The current government in Kabul is the government of a single group: it has neither a representative council nor a constitution. Its leaders were selected outside the country, and Kabul was handed over to them by the United States. Even now, this government faces serious internal opposition and armed resistance. If anyone believes that such a government can accomplish a great deal for them, that would be yet another major mistake.
Were the failures of the past and the previous bloody experiences not enough to prevent the repetition of similar actions?
