Iran and Turkey have started having their truck’s fuel tanks sealed as of today, ISNA reported on Saturday. The trucks, passing the Iran-Turkey joint border, are expected from now on to get their fuel tanks sealed before crossing the border. Truck drivers will receive no fuel inside the neighboring country’s territory, the report said. In addition, trucks crossing the border are not required to pay any transit fees, either. Sealing the tanks was the demand of the Turkish side and Iran accepted it. A transit dispute broke out between Tehran and Ankara on October 10 when the Turkish side started charging Iranian trucks $31 per each 100 km of travel inside Turkey – a move that was retaliated by Iran in turn. To solve the problem, Turkish and Iranian officials held several meetings but negotiations were not concluded. The spat was eventually resolved after Iran’s minister of communications and information technology, Mahmud Va’ezi’s travel to Ankara earlier this month. The two sides are now trying to improve the level of their cross-border trade, which they believe plays a key role in increasing the total bilateral trade volume and reaching the optimum level of $30 billion in bilateral trade by the end of 2015.
