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BAGHDAD: Iraq’s prime minister on Saturday inaugurated building work on what’s slated to turn into the primary railway line connecting the nation to neighboring Iran, a serious political and financial companion. The “Basra-Chalamja connection mission” will hyperlink the main port metropolis of Basra in southern Iraq to Iran’s huge railway community by the Chalamja border crossing, an transport ministry official advised AFP. It’s estimated that the mission will take “between 18 and 24 months”. The purpose is to have the ability to transport “vacationers from the Islamic Republic of Iran and Central Asian nations” to Shiite holy cities, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia Al-Sudani stated in a speech.
He famous that the mission had been underneath dialogue for years earlier than an settlement was reached in 2021. Throughout Saturday’s ceremony, Sudani laid a symbolic basis stone alongside Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber. Sudani thanked Tehran for deliberate demining operations on the border to clear the best way for the prepare line and for a railway bridge over the Shatt al-Arab waterway, the place the Tigris and Euphrates rivers converge earlier than spilling into the Gulf. Iraq and Iran fought an eight-year battle within the Eighties after Saddam Hussein invaded his neighbor within the wake of Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.
Mokhber hailed the “strategic” mission that he stated could be accomplished “over the following two years”, Iranian state media reported him as saying. Half of the 32 km of rail observe deliberate can be on the Iran aspect of the border, its official IRNA information company stated. Conflict-ravaged and beset by rampant corruption, oil-rich Iraq suffers from dilapidated infrastructure, together with outdated highways and railways. Sudani’s authorities has been engaged on forging a rising variety of regional partnerships. In Might, Baghdad unveiled a $17-billion mission often called the “Route of Growth” for a highway and railway stretching 1,200 km from Iraq’s northern border with Turkey to the Gulf within the south.
In the meantime, a collision between two minibuses killed 18 individuals, principally Iranian pilgrims, north of the Iraqi capital Baghdad, medical officers stated on Saturday. The “horrible accident” occurred between Dujail and Samarra, state information company INA stated, citing Khaled Burhan, director of well being providers in Salaheddin province. The minibuses crashed into one another shortly earlier than midnight Friday, leaving 18 individuals lifeless and 15 injured, a medical official in Salaheddin advised AFP, talking on situation of anonymity as a result of he was not licensed to talk to the press. One of many drivers was believed to have fallen asleep on the wheel, the identical supply stated, citing the accounts of witnesses.
Among the many lifeless had been 14 Iranians, two Afghans and two individuals but to be recognized, one other hospital official stated, additionally talking on situation of anonymity. The lifeless included the 2 drivers, stated an official from the realm’s visitors authority. That official, who additionally referred to studies of a driver falling asleep, stated one of many minibuses had veered into the other lane. INA had initially reported a toll of 16 lifeless and 13 injured and stated that these killed had been Shiite Muslim pilgrims from neighboring Iran. Nearly precisely a 12 months in the past, on Sept 11, 11 Iranian Shiite pilgrims and their Iraqi driver died when their minibus collided with a truck in Babil province, south of Baghdad, a well being official stated on the time.
Thousands and thousands of Shiite pilgrims, lots of them from Iran, head every year to the holy shrine metropolis of Karbala for Arbaeen, one of many world’s largest non secular gatherings. Greater than 2.6 million pilgrims have flown into Iraq or crossed its land borders since Arbaeen started this 12 months, based on figures issued on Friday by Iraq’s inside ministry. Street accidents are a recurring accompaniment to Arbaeen, which concludes Sept 6-7 this 12 months. On Monday and Tuesday, 4 highway accidents claimed the lives of 20 individuals and injured dozens extra, principally Iranian pilgrims. These accidents occurred within the southern provinces of Wassit and Dhi Qar, close to the border with Iran.
Battle, neglect and endemic corruption have left oil-rich Iraq’s infrastructure, together with roads and bridges, in disrepair. Officers additionally say velocity, cell phone use and driving whereas impaired contribute to crashes. Final 12 months in Iraq, highway accidents claimed the lives of greater than 4,900 individuals, a mean of 13 per day, based on well being ministry knowledge. Individually, naval forces of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seized a ship “carrying smuggled gasoline” within the Gulf and arrested 4 crewmembers, native media reported Saturday.
“Greater than 50,000 liters of smuggled gasoline had been found” on board on the ship, Fars information company quoted the chief justice of the coastal Hormozgan province, Mojtaba Ghahramani, as saying. He stated the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps navy had “confiscated” the ship and “arrested 4 individuals” throughout the operation. Neither the origin of the ship nor the date of the operation had been instantly disclosed. Ghahramani stated the gasoline could be redirected to the nation’s “authorized distribution community”.
America navy has in current weeks beefed up its presence within the Gulf after accusing Iran of seizing or trying to take ships within the very important waterway. On July 6, the US Navy stated the Guards seized a industrial vessel within the Gulf, a day after it accused Iranian forces of two related makes an attempt off the coast of Oman. Iran later stated the vessel seized within the Gulf was carrying “a couple of million liters of smuggled gasoline”. – AFP
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