By: Kayhan International

 

Iran’s strategic geographical location along with its economic importance, industrial significance, and political prudence in fostering friendly relations with all countries, are among the factors for its emergence as the gateway of three continents – Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Criss-crossed by a network of roads and railways in addition to oil and natural gas pipelines, the Islamic Republic serves as the most vital trade transit route for not just regional states but also far-flung countries in quest for safe, secure, and economical links with each other through the land bridge called Iran.

Trade through the traditional sea routes has increasingly become expensive, unprofitable, time-consuming, and at times unsafe because of pirates and of course, American buccaneers (CENTCOM terrorists), stoking tension and wars in complicity with the illegitimate Zionist entity.

In such a situation, Iran has risen to the rescue for Southeast Asian countries like India, Malaysia, and Indonesia, the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, along with several African nations, eager for cost-effective trade ties with Russia and East Europe as well as the landlocked Central Asian states.

As a result, Iran’s rail and road transit sectors experienced a remarkable 47 percent and 73 percent boost respectively, in the first five months of the current Iranian calendar year (March 21-to-March 20) ending on August 21, compared to the same period last year.

According to Iran’s Ministry of Roads & Urban Development, the volume of cargo transit via railways reached 773,000 tons, up from 526,000 tons in the same period last year.

Besides the Caspian Sea ports, most transited goods entered the Islamic Republic through the border cities of Sarakhs and Astara that respectively straddle the Iran-Central Asia frontier in the northeast and the Iran-Caucasus frontier in the northwest, while exiting through the Persian Gulf ports of Bandar Imam Khomeini and Bandar Abbas as well as Chabahar on the Gulf of Oman.

This is indicative of the importance of Iran as the land bridge in international rail, road, and sea transit routes.

In terms of passenger traffic (mostly domestic), the Iranian rail sector recorded the transfer of 12.8 million passengers in the first five months of this year, with the highest volume in the capital Tehran and the holy city of Mashhad in Khorasan Razavi province.

In addition, the volume of commodities transported via the road sector during the same period shows a 73 percent growth, reaching 7.8 million tons compared to 4.5 million tons in the corresponding period last calendar year.

As for freight delivery via the road transportation sector Isfahan and Tehran provinces registered the largest volume, accounting for 24 and 22 million tons respectively, while the number of passengers transported during this period was 56 million.

These developments, besides indicating the Islamic Republic of Iran’s deft diplomacy in promoting trade and commercial ties amongst regional states, are a series of slaps on the faces of the US and its West European accomplices in economic terrorism, as well as failure of their criminal sanctions against countries of the free world.