Drought: Iran/Iraq/Afghanistan

I haven't written anything about Iran or Iraq since April so I decided to see what was going on. Specifically, the protests that I've been reading about. As I was reading a few articles, a common theme developed:

From the Wall Street Journal (July 3) on protests in Iran:

The latest upheavals centered in the southwestern city of Khorramshahr over the weekend, after brown fluid started running out of taps. Hundreds of residents gathered in a public space reserved for Friday prayers and blamed local officials for the lack of potable water . . . In March farmers from Isfahan province in central Iran protested long droughts.

From The Hill (July 20):

It was the culmination of a week of protests targeting Iraqi government and party offices as well as Iran, as people expressed anger over lack of jobs, electricity, water and infrastructure in southern Iraq.



From Reuters (July 16):

Severe drought across much of Afghanistan is spurring plans to build new dams to help farmers such as Dawoodzai. It is also aggravating tensions with Iran over supplies from the Helmand - a decades-old dispute that has fed accusations that Tehran is helping the Taliban insurgency.

I came across another article that states that parts of Iran have suffered through a drought for the last decade.

I guess it was 7 or 8 years back that I read a book about water by Steven Solomon. It is interesting to read years later about how water is influencing the Middle East.

I wrote previously about how Iran was attempting to build a Shia Crescent. This largely involved Iraq, Syria, Yemen. It should be noted that Afghanistan is fearing that Iran is supporting the Taliban. Of course, if true, how much of this is just Iran trying to cause troubles for US forces in Afghanistan and how much of this is related to water rights?

So which country, Iran or Iraq, is at most risk from these protests? It would seem to me that this would be Iraq. Though a continued drought will likely have dire consequences for both countries.