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Iran enhances links with Iraq

Atul Aneja

Air services between the two countries resume after 25 years

DUBAI: Iran is deepening its linkages with neighbouring Iraq by constructing a cross-border railway line, an oil pipeline and resuming air services.

During talks with visiting Iraqi Deputy Prime Minister, Ahmad Chalabi, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his country was keen to establish an oil pipeline connecting the Iranian oil city of Abadan with Basra. Basra is the hub of southern Iraq's oil industry and is surrounded by a string of oil fields. Both Basra and Abadan are located on either side of the 190 km long Shatt al-Arab waterway that is formed by the confluence of the rivers Tigris and Euphrates. According to Iranian state television, Mr. Ahmadinejad also called for the speedy construction of a cross border rail link.

Railway links

Both sides have been discussing the construction of a railway line between Basra and Khorramshar-the Iranian oil city located 10 km north of Abadan. Most of this port city had been devastated during the 10-year-old Iran-Iraq war.

Iran is also seeking to develop a railway track linking the Iraqi holy cities of Najaf and Karbala as well lending its expertise for overhauling locomotives and servicing Iraqi railway wagons.

Besides, the Iranian President proposed that his country was willing to open its port facilities for transiting Iraqi goods.

Close on the heels of Mr. Chalabi's visit, a civilian Iraqi airliner has landed in Teheran, signalling the resumption of air services between the two countries that had been stalled for 25 years. Iranian state television showed pictures of the Boeing-727, which carried 69 passengers including Iraqi civil aviation officials and reporters, landing and taxiing to the terminal. The plane later returned to Baghdad. Bi-weekly flights between the two capitals were expected to begin on November 16.

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