Page 45 - IRANRptMar21

Airlines from Canada, Australia and Singapore "also steered clear," according to a ​Canadian report on Flight PS752 released in December​. UIA was one of the companies that continued to operate in the airspace that Iran kept open. Iran has maintained that a string of human errors and other issues led to the accidental firing of missiles after the commercial plane was misidentified as a hostile target. But Canada's former minister of foreign affairs Francois-Philippe Champagne has taken issue with the idea that human error was to blame. Canada has submitted a long list of questions to Iran— including the question of why the airspace was kept open when missiles were being fired.
Canada's Transportation Safety Board (TSB) announced on February 16 that it received a draft of Iran's final report on its safety investigation. Ukraine—which has access to the report since its plane was involved—appointed a TSB representative as a technical adviser so that Canada could provide feedback on the findings.
9.1.4​ Transport sector news
Venezuela ‘shipping jet fuel to Iran in return for vital gasoline imports from fellow sanctioned nation’
‘New rail transit era opening up for freight routes across Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan’
Venezuela is shipping jet fuel to Iran in return for vital gasoline imports for the South American nation as part of a swap deal agreed by state-run oil firms, three people with knowledge of the matter have ​told ​Reuters. Iran has ramped up assistance to Venezuela since last year as the US tightened sanctions on both countries, hitting oil exports by state-run firms Petroleos de Venezuela and National Iranian oil Company (NIOC). Tehran has sent flotillas of state-operated tankers carrying gasoline and feedstock for motor fuel to Venezuela, as well as equipment and spare parts to help the once-prosperous OPEC nation restart its dilapidated refineries. But the countries have provided few details on what Iran is getting from Venezuela in return.
While the US claimed Iran was being paid partly in gold, Iran’s embassy in Caracas simply stated last August that Venezuela shipped a cargo of mangos and pineapples to Iran as part of “win-win commercial relations.”
One source reportedly told Reuters NIOC and PDVSA last year agreed to a full swap of Venezuela jet fuel to pay for the Iranian gasoline.
The jet fuel is said to be shipped in the Iranian tankers that deliver gasoline to Venezuela in order to secure an uninterrupted flow of refined products. Such deals are known as “perfect trips” in the maritime industry as vessels travel fully laden in both directions.
A new rail transit era for freight travelling across railroads linking Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan is opening up, the Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Ministry has declared, Iran’s Tasnim News Agency reported on January 27.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) on pursuing the opportunities offered by new links was lately signed by Turkish and Iranian rail officials in Ankara, it added.
The ministry said it expected around one million tonnes of cargo would this year be transported via rail between Turkey and Iran. Despite interruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic last year, three freight train services were run daily between Turkey and Iran and transported 564,000 tonnes of cargo, it noted.
The ministry said it anticipated that freight trains would soon also run between Turkey and Pakistan via Iran on a common tariff introduced by the three countries. Talks were ongoing to set this tariff, it added.
Finally, a recently completed railroad link between Iran and Afghanistan
45​ IRAN Country Report March 2021 www.intellinews.com