Iran’s southeastern port of Chabahar will pair with Oman’s Sohar as sister ports in the near future, the head of Sistan-Baluchestan Cultural Heritage, Handcraft and Tourism Directorate said.
"The move would help improve cultural, economic and commercial ties between the two ports and eventually boost friendship and tourism between the two nations," Mana.ir quoted Alireza Jalalzaee as saying.
Sisterhood between towns, cities, counties, provinces, regions, states and even countries in geographically and politically distinct areas refers to a form of legal or social agreement to promote cultural and commercial ties.
The modern concept of twinning, conceived after the Second World War in 1947, was intended to foster friendship and understanding between different cultures and between former foes as an act of peace and reconciliation and to encourage trade and tourism.
The United States said Tuesday it would exempt Iran's Indian-backed port of Chabahar from new sanctions on Tehran, recognizing the value of the project to Afghanistan.
Iran late last year inaugurated the port on the Indian Ocean that provides a key supply route to landlocked Afghanistan and allows India to bypass Pakistan.
Chabahar is Iran’s only oceanic port town and consists of two separate ports: Shahid Kalantari and Shahid Beheshti.
The opening of the first phase of Shahid Beheshti Port (out of five phases defined for the project) in cooperation with India by Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Dec. 3., which has tripled its capacity to 8.5 million tons (equal to that of all the northern ports of the country), will allow the docking of super-large container ships (between 100,000 DWT and 120,000 DWT).
A new shipping route was launched between Iran’s Khorramshahr Port and Oman’s Sohar Port early this year.
Chairman of Iran-Oman Chamber of Commerce Mohsen Zarrabi said at the time that the opening of two other shipping routes, namely Chabahar-Sohar and Bushehr-Sohar, was also on the agenda of the joint chamber.
The Khorramshahr-Sohar route is expected to increase bilateral trade to $5 billion in the next four years, he added.
Sohar Port is a deep-sea port located in Sohar, the capital and largest city of Al-Batinah North Governorate midway between Dubai and Muscat.
