On February 26, Iran officially handed over the Afghan embassy in Tehran to diplomats from the Taliban—a big step in formalizing and deepening their ties. Relations between the two governments will not start from scratch, as ties have been developing in a number of areas over the past year and a half. The Taliban previously operated consulate-generals out of Mashhad and Zahedan, while Iran never formally closed its embassy in Kabul following the group’s 2021 takeover in Afghanistan. The situation is notably different from the tensions that characterized the first iteration of the Taliban’s “Islamic Emirate,” when Tehran had deep security concerns about the group due to its mistreatment of Afghanistan’s Shia Hazara community and its 1998 killing of Iranian diplomats at the Mazar-e Sharif consulate. Indeed, the embassy handover is another accomplishment in the Taliban’s slow but persistent push for legitimacy and full international recognition, even if the latter has yet to happen.
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