Envoy Urges Completion of Iran-Iraq Railway

Iranian Ambassador to Baghdad Iraj Masjedi in a meeting with Secretary-General of the Council of Ministers of Iraq Hamid Naim Al-Ghazi underlined the need for the completion of the railway connecting the two countries together. The Iranian ambassador asked the Iraqi side to complete the railway connection project, and said, "Iran has done all preparations for the project."
Iraq's Council of Ministers had agreed earlier this year to connect the country's railway to that of Iran through the Basra-Shalamcheh corridor. Iran’s part of the railway connection with 17 kilometers length was constructed in 2011, but the 32-kilometer part of the Iraqi side has yet to be implemented by Iraq’s government.

In a relevant development in March, Iranian Road and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami and his Iraqi counterpart Nasser Hussein al-Shibli in a meeting in Tehran underlined the need to expand mutual cooperation in the transportation sector, specially railway. During the meeting, Eslami pointed to the issue of transportation as a "vital lifeline of trade", and voiced Iran's readiness to support cooperation and strengthen relations between two neighboring countries to improve the quality of transportation. Al-Shibli, for his part, emphasized the need for promoting the quality of land, sea, air, and rail transport between the two countries.

The Iraqi transport minister said that his country is ready to work on a transit system with the Iranian side according to the administrative instructions for transit cooperation with neighboring countries such as Turkey, Syria, and Jordan, and even start of cooperation with the Iranian side. He went on to announce plans to hold meetings to resolve the remaining issues and finalize an agreement between the two countries. The two sides also stressed the possibility of connecting the railway from Shalamcheh in Southwestern Iran to Basra province in Iraq. During the meeting, he discussed the residents of Shatt al-Arab and the cooperation of the two sides in facilitating navigation for its residents. - Fars