The decades-long crisis in Afghanistan continues to constitute a matter of geopolitical import in Iran and internationally. Focusing on the five-year period of Taliban rule (1996-2001), in this paper I analyze the discourse of the Islamic Republic of Iran regarding the Afghanistan crisis. In order to contribute to our knowledge of Iranian-Afghan relations, I explore changes and continuities in that discourse—treating the Taliban’s 1998 murder of Iranian diplomats and the 2001 American-led assault on Afghanistan as critical historical junctures. Quantitatively, I examine the extent to which the discourse dealt with the crisis. Qualitatively, I employ critical discourse analysis so as to explicate the language used by members and organs of the Iranian government to discuss the crisis. Conclusively, I present the relatively continuous (purported) beliefs and concerns which dominated official Iranian discourse on Afghanistan: Iran’s rhetorical opposition to military intervention; propagation of the crisis by the United States, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan; the Taliban’s damage to the international image of Islam; women’s rights; and, to a lesser degree, drug trafficking, Iranian national security, and the influx of Afghan refugees to Iran. Despite marked continuity in the expression of most of these concerns and beliefs, the discourse indeed displayed some ambivalence regarding military intervention after the aforementioned historical junctures in 1998 and 2001. My research encompasses numerous articles published from 1996 to 2001 in three Iranian periodicals. First, Echo of Islam is an English-language international magazine published originally by the Ministry of Islamic Guidance and later by the Islamic Thought Foundation—an organ of the Islamic Republic. Second, Saturday editions of the newspaper Ittila‘at constitute another major source. Though privately owned, Ittila‘at contains many articles from the Islamic Republic News Agency and Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting—both of which cover domestic and international affairs, as well as related statements by high-ranking Iranian officials. Additionally, Ittila‘at regularly highlights Friday sermons in which high-ranking clerics communicate the Islamic Republic’s concerns and beliefs regarding the Afghanistan crisis. Lastly, articles published by the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution in Payam-i Inqilab supplement the other two sources. Whereas the articles in Echo of Islam represent rhetoric targeting foreign audiences, articles in Payam-i Inqilab and Ittila‘at exemplify discourse directed at the domestic audience. Consequentially, in this paper I deliver novel, well-rounded research on the discourse of various members and organs of the Iranian government regarding the Taliban and the crisis in Afghanistan.