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The service was suspended in 2011 due to security concerns over clashes between Turkish forces and the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) militia, listed as a terrorist group by Ankara. There are hopes a Tehran-Ankara train service will start relatively soon.
The service offers a stop at Tabriz, the capital city of East Azerbaijan province in northwestern Iran. Van, located near the Iranian border, is a tourist attraction offering natural beauty and historic monuments. Iranian tourists often arrive there in large numbers, especially during Iran's national holidays. Mehrdad Nasseri, the head of the department of tourism at Iran’s Raja Rail Transportation Company, reportedly told Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency news service: “These [train] services will continue this way. We have come on this train with 79 passengers. This is a good number but we hope that this number increases. We want to increase the number of [weekly] services by informing passengers and advertising [the service]. We believe that with the number of services increasing, the cooperation between Iran and Turkey will also develop.
The governments of Tajikistan and Iran have agreed on financing and completing the Istiklol Tunnel near Dushanbe, the Tajik Telegraph Agency reported on June 30.
The tunnel is part of an Ahmadinejad-era highway vision, which would stretch from the port of Chabahar, through Afghanistan, passing Dushanbe and heading into Chinese controlled East-Turkestan. The route was originally financed jointly by the Iranian and Tajiki governments in 2014, but funds dried up in 2015 after the tunnel was only half built.
It is estimated that each government will need to invest an additional $4mn to finish the long-delayed tunnel, which will be designated for ventilation and fire-fighting systems needed to bring the tunnel up to international standards. Khudoyor Khudoyorov, Minister of Transport of Tajikistan, and Reza Ardakanian, Minister of Energy of Iran agreed that each side would invest $4mn to complete construction work inside the Istiklol tunnel during the recent CICA meeting held in Dushanbe from June 15 to 16.
An unnamed source speaking with RFE/RL Tajik service said: "The money will be used to install and put into operation ventilation and fire suppression systems, lighting and safety control in the tunnel, as well as traffic control." Iran has invested more than $60mn in the construction of the tunnel and has carried out much of the engineering work.
Like other CIS countries, Tehran appears to be attempting to mend ties with their estranged Persian cousin country.
Plans are reportedly afoot to launch a bus route between Azerbaijan’s capital Baku and Iran’s second city and holy city of Mashhad.
The bus service would be the first undertaking of its kind amid warming bilateral relations between Iran and Azerbaijan.
“An agreement on the opening of the Baku-Mashhad bus service was reached during a meeting of the Azerbaijani-Iranian joint commission on international automobile relations in Baku,” Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Transport, Communications and High Technologies said in a statement, according to Interfax.
“Following the meeting, the parties also agreed to eliminate the restrictions applied to freight vehicles registered in Azerbaijan when they enter without cargo to Iran,” the news agency’s report added.
According to the Azerbaijan Customs Authority, in 2018, trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Iran amounted to $446mn, up 74% y/y.
The Azerbaijan-Iran-Azerbaijan bus option is set to follow the recent launch of
36 IRAN Country Report July 2019 www.intellinews.com