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Chaos on Iran-Iraqi Kurdistan border over
border closing
25.9.2007
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September
25, 2007
Erbil-Hewler, Kurdistan region 'Iraq', -- The
sudden
closure by Iran
of its border with Kurdistan region 'northern Iraq'
began taking its toll on Tuesday, with queues of
trucks forming at the frontier and experts warning
of severe economic fallout.
Tehran said on Monday it was closing its frontier
with Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region in protest
at the detention last week of an Iranian by US
troops.
"There are a huge number of trucks waiting to cross
the border into Kurdistan but the Iranians are not
allowing them through," said the mayor of Joman town
near the Haj Umran border post in Kurdistan
'northern Iraq'.
"The trucks are carrying frozen goods such as
chicken, meat and eggs which are going to spoil. We
spoke to the Iranian officials but they refused to
allow the border post to open," Abdul Wahid Koani
said.
Economic analyst Mohammed Salman of the University
of Erbil warned that people on both sides of the
frontier would be affected. |
Trucks cross the Iranian-Iraqi Kurdistan region
border at the Kurdistan crossing point of Bashmakh
in March 2007 |
"The closure of the border will hit both the
Iranians and Iraqis because Kurdistan is considered
a fertile market for Iranian goods," said Salman.
Aziz Ibrahim, director general of the Kurdish
ministry of trade, agreed there could be significant
economic damage.
"There are 120 Iranian firms working in different
regions of Kurdistan, most of which are
participating in construction projects and have
signed trade contracts with Iraqi concerns," Ibrahim
said.
"Kurdistan is a key trading partner with Iran and a
major importer of Iranian goods," he said.
Kurdistan trade minister Mohammed Raouf estimated
the value of goods crossing the border annually at
one billion dollars.
Iran said it had shut the border following the
detention on Thursday by US forces of Mahmudi
Farhadi.
The US military charges that Farhadi is an officer
in the covert operations arm of Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guards, accused by American commanders
of helping Shiite militias involved in Iraq's bloody
sectarian conflict.
"We have closed the border and we hope the Iraqi
authorities will act as quickly as possible to
release our colleague," the governor of Iran's
northwestern Kordestan province, Esmaeel Najar, said
on Monday.
"We had said that if he (Farhadi) was not freed
rapidly, we would reconsider our commercial ties"
with the Iraqi Kurdish region, Najar added.
Asked when the border would reopen, he replied: "We
hope that the Iraqi authorities will act as swiftly
as possible to free our colleague."
Iran has made clear that it regards Iraqi
sovereignty at stake in Farhadi's continued custody
after both the regional and national authorities of
Iraq said he had been visiting with their consent.
Iraqi President Jalal Talabani, himself a Kurd, had
warned senior US officials on Saturday that Iran was
poised to close the border over the Farhadi affair.
In an indignant letter to General David Petraeus,
the commander of US forces in Iraq, and US
ambassador Ryan Crocker, Talabani said the arrest of
an Iranian official who had been invited by the
Kurdish authorities was "a humiliation for the
regional administration."
The row comes as Iran intensifies its pressure on
the Iraqi authorities to close the rear bases of
separatist Kurdish guerrillas active in the Islamic
republic's western provinces.
On Saturday, Iran confirmed for the first time that
it had shelled suspected positions inside Iraq of
the PJAK (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan), a rebel
group linked to Turkey's outlawed Kurdistan Workers'
Party (PKK).
Iran has accused the United States of turning a
blind eye to the actions of the rebels amid the
escalating dispute over the Islamic republic's
nuclear programme.
Washington also accuses Tehran of fomenting unrest
in Iraq since the 2003 US-led liberation.
On Sunday, the American military charged that Iran
was smuggling surface-to-air missiles as well as
sophisticated explosives to Shiite militia groups in
Iraq.
AFP
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