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Iran set to permit airlines to resume flights at full capacity
strike on the jet was premeditated. However, it condemned what it determined was the incompetence and recklessness of those responsible.
The victim association’s report has been sent to Canada's Foreign Affairs department for analysis.
Iran this week began a military court trial of 10 defendants of different military ranks over the shooting down of the plane.
In February, a UN special rapporteur accused Iran of making misleading denials in relation to the tragedy and conducting inadequate investigations. Those who died in the crash included citizens of Afghanistan, Britain, Canada, Germany, Iran, Sweden and Ukraine.
A relaxation of coronavirus rules means Iran's airlines will be allowed to operate flights at full capacity from November 22, according to the deputy roads and urban development minister Adam Nejad as cited by Mehr News on November 7.
Iranian carriers have suffered the double whammy of coronavirus curbs decimating local and international flight schedules and the impact of the severe devaluation of the Iranian rial (IRR), a big difficulty given the fixed prices regulators enforce on tickets. Some of the airlines now face the prospect of either recouping significant losses or slipping into bankruptcy.
Nejad was reported as saying that from the start of the next Persian calendar month of Azar on November 22, all of the country's airlines would be allowed to fly at full capacity. The health ministry, he said, has eased travel restrictions as the coronavirus vaccination rate in the country had increased to a sufficient level to allow for the move.
Airline passengers will still need to show a negative PCR test before being permitted to fly and during their flight they will have to wear a mask.
Iran has in recent weeks invited more and more foreign airlines to return to its airports. Russia'sAeroflot was one of the latest to get the green light.
9.1.4 Transport sector news
Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan sign MoU on expanding railroad
Iranian, Afghan officials to discuss completing third phase of cross-border railroad
Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkmenistan have signed a trilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) to expand railroad cooperation to boost cargo volumes between the three Caspian Sea littoral states.
The document reportedly sets out an aim to increase freight traffic from Kazakhstan to Turkmenistan and onwards to Iran. According to the memorandum, a joint working group should be formed by the three nations. The three countries are linked via the 917.5-kilometre Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway launched in 2014. The railway is part of the North-South international transport corridor. The rail route connects Ozen in energy-rich western Kazakhstan with Bereket-Etrek in Turkmenistan and ends in Gorgan in northeastern Iran.
The volume of cargo transit between Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan has grown since the launch of the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway, reaching 272,960 tonnes as of the first quarter of 2020.
Discussions about completing the third phase of the first railroad to connect Iran with neighbouring Afghanistan are to be held between an Iranian delegation that will next week travel to the Afghan oasis city of Herat for talks with the Taliban, Tasnim News Agency reported on November 25.
Head of foreign relations for Herat Province, Maulvi Sher Ahmad Ammar, reportedly announced that the Iranian delegation and Afghan officials would
47 IRAN Country Report December 2021 www.intellinews.com