Despite hundreds of small and large factories operating in Herat, unemployment rate is rising in the western Afghan province.

Many laborers wait for work from morning till evening in every corner of the city, with some saying that they cannot find work even in a week.

Life has become difficult for the laborers during the cold winter. They cannot meet their basic living expenses.

Sayed Mahdi was deported from Iran a month ago. He is now looking for work every day. His family is in Iran and he himself spends difficult nights and days in Herat. Like Sayed Mahdi, dozens of other young people wait to find work every day.

“I came to live in my country. But what hope do I have to live with? Should I go and sleep in a mosque? In this cold season, there is no work,” he said.

Mohammad Ali, a laborer, says: “I was deported and I have no proper place to live in. My family is there. My four children are there. They deported me. There are people here whose conditions are much worse than mine.”

Some laborers say that unemployment has increased compared to last year and now they are going through a difficult situation in this cold weather. They say that they cannot afford to pay for their basic living expenses and this situation is bothering them.

“I have not been able to work for two or three weeks. There is unemployment. There are two or three thousand workers here, but there is no work,” says Ahmad Shah, a laborer.

Ghulam Rasool, another laborer, says: “When we go home empty-handed, our child gets upset. But we have no choice. My child has expectations. My wife has expectations.”

Aziz Ahmad waits for work with his tools in another corner of Herat city. He says that job opportunities have decreased greatly, cost of living is high, and there is no work to meet his basic living expenses.

He says: “I stand here from morning to evening, but there's no work."

Local officials have repeatedly said that thousands of people work in the Herat Industrial Park and that efforts are being made to reduce unemployment by launching mining projects.

In an apparent warning to Pakistan, Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affiars Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai said on Saturday that Afghanistan has fighters who can act like “atomic bomb.”

"Today is not the day to work with Kalashnikov. Today, you will not work with M4. Today, you will have fast planes and drones. You will have weapons that the world will fear you,” Stanikzai said addressing a graduation ceremony in Kabul’s Loya Jirga hall. “Neighboring countries are proud of their weapons and claim that the Emirate is nothing in front of them. But we tell them that if you have named your rocket Ahmad and Mahmud, Ahmad and Mahmud themselves are here with us. If you have named your rocket Ghaznavi, Babur or Abdali, my country is full of Abdalis, Mahmuds and Abdalis. Each of them is an atomic bomb.”

Stanikzai warned that if Afghanistan sends “five sons of Mahmud, Abdali or Babur across the border, no one could stop them not even in the Indian ocean.”

The official said that Afghan forces have successfully protected the country’s borders. "If the enemy has looked at it with an evil eye, they have plucked out their eye."

The remarks come as Pakistan carried out airstrikes in Afghanistan’s Paktika province last month, killing dozens of people. Afghanistan retaliated targeting multiple points in Pakistan.

In his speech, Stanikzai also stressed on the importance of making Afghanistan’s economy self-reliant.

"Any country that is poor is a slave. This is a principle in the world. A hungry and poor person accepts the orders of the rich, and if he does not accept their orders, no one will give him bread. Today, if foreign countries and organizations set conditions in Afghanistan, it is because we are dependent on them. If we were economically self-reliant, we would tell everyone that we will not accept any of your conditions and you should not interfere, but unfortunately, we are dependent for even a sack of flour,” he said.

Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei on Friday called for Afghanistan's cooperation in continuing the natural flow of water in border rivers and removing obstacles in this regard.

Referring to the cultural, racial, religious and civilization ties between Iran and Afghanistan, and the presence of millions of Afghans in Iran for nearly five decades, Baqaei said that maintaining and deepening relations between the two countries in various fields requires respect for mutual interests and avoiding "harmful unilateral actions."

He also emphasized the importance of bilateral agreements and applicable principles of international treaties and customary law and the natural rights of people downstream of shared rivers, as well as the principle of good neighborliness in the fair use of water resources by the two nations.

Regarding the construction of new dams or dam filling in Afghanistan, he said that Tehran has repeatedly told the Afghan authorities that water resources cannot be carried out without respecting Iran's rights in accordance with the bilateral treaty.

The official stated that Tehran, in contact with the relevant Afghan authorities, has expressed its strong objection and concern regarding the "disproportionate restriction" of water entering Iran or the diversion of the natural course of the rivers that have been the origin and source of development and shaping the natural environmental landscape of both sides of the shared borders.

The Islamic Emirate has repeatedly emphasized that it is committed to ensuring Iran's rights in accordance with the 1973 treaty, but Iran must also consider the drought situation.