By: Kayhan Int’l Staff Writer

 

If the docking at Chabahar Port of the first Chinese container vessel marks establishment of the first direct shipping line between Iran and China, the overland road-rail trade route between the two countries is also growing, to the exasperation of the common enemy, the US.

This is not the end of American agony and the failure of its terroristic policy of sanctions on countries rejecting its hegemony as is further evident by the building of a new 3,000 km transcontinental trade route via Russia and the Islamic Republic, stretching from the eastern edge of Europe to the Indian Ocean rims.

These passages are not just beyond the reach of any foreign intervention, but are both timesaving and cost effective to the benefit of the countries involved.

With launching of the direct Iran-China shipping line cargos that usually took over a month to reach the destination transiting through different ports and ships are delivered ten days earlier, while the cost of loading and unloading is reduced by $400 per container. 

At the same time, the road and rail links between Iran and China through Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and other landlocked Central Asian countries has accelerated the flow of goods, unhindered by the economic terrorism of the US.

Meanwhile, another fast emerging trade corridor would allow Iran and Russia to reduce thousands of km of existing routes. The two countries are spending billions of dollars to speed up delivery of cargos along rivers and railways linked by the Caspian Sea. Dozens of Russian and Iranian vessels – some illegally sanctioned by the US – already plying the route.

According to reports, Russia is finalizing rules that would give ships from Iran the right of passage along inland waterways on the Volga and Don rivers, which respectively flow into the Caspian and the Black Sea – connected via a hundred km long manmade canal facilitating navigation of large vessels.

The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL), which the US has illegally sanctioned, has made a $10 million investment in a port along the Volga in order to double cargo capacity at the Solyanka Port in Astrakhan on the northern side of the Caspian, to 85,000 tons a month.

Inside Iran itself, the Islamic Republic government is pouring money into terminals for unloading cargo from ships onto railroads that crisscross the country from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf, while expanding a rail network that already runs some 16,000 km and is part of the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The goal of both Tehran and Moscow is to protect commercial links from the meddling of the US and its West European accomplices in crimes against the free world and to build new ones with the fast-growing economies of major Asian countries, such as India and Indonesia. 

These new routes via Iran will save thousands of kilometres for India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and other countries trading with Russia and Europe, besides greatly affecting the import/export prices. 

Maria Shagina, an expert on sanctions and Russian foreign policy at the London–based International Institute for Strategic Studies reluctantly admits: “This is about establishing sanctions–proof supply chains all the way through.” 

Russia is sending grain to India via Iran’s Bandar Abbas Port and thus for both the countries India is a crucial node in the networks they are building.

An initial 12 million-ton shipment of Russian grain bound for India has already transited Iran, which New Delhi sees as a vital link for its economy by ignoring the illegal US sanctions or more properly economic terrorism against Tehran and Moscow.

It is also worth recalling that in May 2016, Iran, India, and Afghanistan signed a trilateral agreement for the strategically located Chabahar Port to give New Delhi access to the markets of Kabul and the landlocked Central Asian countries.

In short, the Islamic Republic, having quelled the riots triggered in some parts of Iran by terrorists and traitors, is fully confident of defeating the illegal US sanctions through various means, including its growing trade ties with Russia and China, as well as with countries ignoring American pressures, with its seaports serve as major gates for exports and imports.