• Domestic Economy

    Long Lines of Trucks Held Up Behind Pakistani Border

    Long lines of Iranian trucks have formed at the common border with Pakistan. 

    Iran’s southeastern neighbor has made it extremely difficult for Iranian truck fleet to cross the border for about a month now, says director general of International Transportation and Transits Bureau of Road Maintenance and Transportation Organization, a subsidiary of the Ministry of Roads and Urban Development.

    “This is not the first time Pakistan is causing trouble for our transportation and transit from its borders. Last winter, they set heavy tariffs for Iranian trucks entering their country and our drivers were held up at the border for days. This is while Pakistani fleet are commuting as usual through the Iranian borders,” Mohammad Javad Hedayati was also quoted as saying by the Persian daily Shargh.

    Earlier, transit disputes emerged between Iran and some neighboring countries.

    “Last November, the Iranian fleet got held up at our border with Iraq, which caused hefty losses to their consignments. The same thing happened at Azerbaijan’s borders last year and the news made the headlines. We also had long lines of Iranian trucks at the borders of Turkmenistan and Turkey last year. Transportation experts say all this hassle in transit makes sense when we look at the bigger picture. This looks more like a scheme by rivals to remove Iran from the international transit scene.”

    Mahmoud Tohidast, a board member of Iran-Pakistan Chamber of Commerce, says Pakistani officials prevent the easy flow of transit through their country under different pretexts.

    “One day, they increase transit tariffs and the next day, they refrain from issuing visas for our drivers. They also deliberately make customs procedures much more difficult to create these long lines,” he added. 

    Hedayati says Iranian truck drivers are made to unload their cargo at Pakistan’s borders and deliver them to Pakistani fleet, adding that this is very time-consuming and causes damage to the goods.

    “Pakistani officials’ excuse for not issuing visas for Iranian drivers is strange. They say they are facing a shortage of special holograms used in visas,” he added.  

    A few years back, the Pakistani government began setting up fences at its 950-kilometer borders with Iran, saying that it intends to prevent terrorist activities after Pakistani troops were attacked at the border. Pakistani officials say another reason they want fences across the borders is to curb smuggling and have asked their Iranian counterparts to tighten safety measures on their side of the borde. 

    Iranian officials have welcomed Pakistan’s fence project since it makes it easier for them to control the borders.

    Ali Ziyaei, a transportation expert, also believes that Pakistan’s measures are part of a bigger plan to cut Iran out of the regional transit.

    “Our southeastern neighbor even plans to make peace with India after years of dispute. Recently, Indian wheat cargos that were usually transited via Iran’s Chabahar Port to Afghanistan used Pakistani routes,” he added.  

    Ziyaei noted that China has recently agreed to the Taliban’s request for Afghanistan to join the Silk Road project. 

    “This is while, based on the stance of Iran-China Chamber of Commerce and Sistan-Baluchestan Province’s Ports and Maritime Organization, the Chinese government has shown no interest in investing in the expansion of Chabahar Port. It is important to note that India has also failed to make the most out of its presence in this strategic Iranian port and has chosen alternative ways to carry out its trade. All this could mean that Chabahar Port could be put aside from regional transit and transportation projects,” he said. 

    Chabahar Port’s operator, the state-owned India Ports Global Limited, is currently buying time at the southeastern Iranian port, postponing all activity to when talks between Iran and world powers about sanctions imposed on Tehran come to a conclusion, says the head of the board of directors of the Shipping Association of Iran.

    “Chabahar Port could have been put to a much better use over these years, but looking closely at the situation, we see that neither the Indian side nor Iranians have remained faithful to their commitments,” Rouzbeh Mokhtari was also quoted as saying by ILNA.

    The official noted that despite the fact that the southeastern port is exempt from sanctions, IPGL seems reluctant to engage in any activity in Chabahar.

     

     

    Ukraine Conflict Diverts European Trade to Iran

    The Ukraine conflict has resulted in an unexpected increase in trade flows east, with one of the beneficiaries being Iran. 

    This is because the International North-South Transportation Corridor, originally intended as a link to boost India-Iran trade, has now become a key part of the far wider Southern Route between Europe and Asia as the EU’s northern border with Russia remains closed, according to Silk Road Briefing.

    INSTC runs north-south across Iran and connects the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf allowing European goods transit east from the EU’s southern ports in Italy and Greece, in addition to the Bulgarian and Romanian Black Sea ports’ access via Turkey and Georgia to Azerbaijan’s Port at Baku. 

    From there, Iran’s INSTC route takes them south and to markets in East Africa, the Middle East, Pakistan, India and South Asia.

    At present, the Iranian INSTC is a multimodal road-rail network, the rail construction of which is continuing and should be fully completed next year. This is having a significant impact on how Iran is being seen as a vital link between Europe and Asia. 

    To help speed up delivery times, Iran’s international cargo transportation through its airports increased by 128%, in the first month of the current Iranian year (March 21-April 20), according to statistics of the Iranian Airports and Air Navigation Company.

    About 4,100 tons of cargo were transported internationally through Iranian airports in that month compared to 1,800 tons in the same month of last year. That increase has also been reflected in passenger traffic, with international passenger transit through Iranian airports rising fourfold to 202,000 for the same period, as opposed to 48,700 in the previous year.

    Iran’s airports are also undergoing significant upgrades, with both Chinese and Russian contractors retained to develop 116 Iranian airports in stages over the next two decades. Both China and Russia signed off 25- and 20-year investment and development agreements respectively with Iran last year.

    The ongoing trend saw Iranian goods’ transit increase by 52% in March and creates something of a political quandary for both the European Union and United States, as Iran, like Russia is also under significant US sanctions. 

    Washington would prefer not to see any facilitation of Iranian international trade, whereas Europe needs this access route to Asia following Russian sanctions.

    At some point, the United States is going to make a call whether attaching the European Union to its own North American supply chains is more desirable than allowing Iranian trade to flourish. 

    For now, Iran is being tolerated, however one can expect gradual, possibly decade-long sustained pressure to see that this is eventually reversed, and that North American trade routes eventually take priority for the EU over Iranian and Asian ones.

    The big attraction of INSTC is its key hub, namely Iran’s sole oceanic port, Chabahar, on the Sea of Oman opening out into the wider Indian Ocean. INSTC was also presented as a transit option via Russian routes running from and to European ports, including Helsinki. However, under the current circumstances, it has now become a key part of the Southern Route running between Europe and Asia, according to bne IntelliNews.

     

You can also read ...