Iran announces the establishment of a new border crossing with Iraq

The Governor of West Azerbaijan Province, northwest of Iran, Muhammad Sadiq Motamedian, announced today, Saturday, the establishment of a new border crossing between Iran and Iraq in the border region of West Azerbaijan Province and the Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Motamedian said, "It was decided during the meeting of the governors of the provinces bordering the Iraqi Kurdistan region that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the authorities of the Iraqi Kurdistan region would make the necessary arrangements with Baghdad in order to establish the Kalashin-Sidkan border and formalize the Sardasht Kileh border." He stressed the solution to transit problems, including the transport of goods in one direction, and added: In this meeting, and in view of Iraq's membership in the International Transit Agreement (TIR), it requested the implementation of these treaties on the borders of the Iraqi Kurdistan region with Iran. The Governor of West Azerbaijan Province also referred to the coor dination to organize their common border, and said: Due to the development and improvement of the infrastructure of the roads leading to the Tamershin border, including Mohammadyar to Naqda, Naqda to Piranshahr, and Piranshahr to Tamershin, it has been and is expected that the Iraqi Kurdistan Region will also, to accelerate the development of the Haj Omran crossing road to Erbil.' Motamedian said: It was agreed on the need to synchronize police data and information on both sides to speed up the entry and exit of passengers and also to enhance joint cooperation in the fields of health and medical services. He referred to the coordination that took place in order to develop and establish unified border gates to facilitate transit, export and import, and said: In this regard, a joint delegation from West Azerbaijan and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq conducted the necessary studies and reviews to increase the number of individual border gates. They will establish borders (from the four existing gates to 10 gates) to develop and run this project. Source: National Iraqi News Agency