Tehran Willing to Enhance Cooperation with Baghdad: Minister

Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammad Eslami in a phone conversation with his Iraqi counterpart Nazanin Mohammad Sheikh Mohammad said Iran is prepared to develop cooperation with Iraq.

Eslami congratulated Sheikh Mohammad’s appointment as the minister of roads and urban development in the cabinet of Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

He wished success for the new Iraqi government and invited his Iraqi counterpart to visit Tehran.

In a relevant development in July 2019, officials from Iran, Iraq, and Syria signed an agreement to further increase the joint projects of the trio for developing trilateral transportation infrastructures through a set of measures, including linking their rail networks from the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

In April 2019, Iraqi Republic Railways Company Chief Salib al-Hussaini said that Tehran, Baghdad, and Damascus will soon hold a summit to further discuss the development of a transnational railway line linking the three countries.

Salib al-Hussaini said on April 12 that a summit will be held between Iran, Iraq, and Syria to further discuss the project of the transnational rail between the three countries.

He made the remarks on the sidelines of the joint Syrian-Iraqi committee held in Damascus, a week after Iranian First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri spoke of an initiative to link the Persian Gulf to the Mediterranean.

“We will connect the Persian Gulf from Iraq to Syria and the Mediterranean via railway and road,” said Jahangiri, making reference to the construction of a railway linking Shalamcheh to Basra.

The Shalamcheh-Basra railway project is estimated to cost 2.22 billion rials and can link Iran to Syria via Iraq.

Speaking last December, Director General of the Railway and Technical Structures Department at the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (RAI) Mohammad Mousavi said Iran was planning to build a movable railway bridge over the Arvand River as part of the Shalamcheh-Basra project.

Mousavi said the project would effectively link the Iranian cities of Khorramshahr and Abadan along with the Imam Khomeini Port to the Iraqi city.