TEHRAN- Iranian Transport and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami said that his country is ready to restart transit relations with the Central Asian countries, IRNA reported.

Iranian government aims to facilitate trade and transit with the regional countries while complying with the health protocols to combat coronavirus outbreak, the minister stressed.

To this end, all required disinfection equipment have been installed in the road and railway terminals on the borders, Eslami noted.

While Iran’s land borders are reopening, the country is resuming trade and transit with the neighbors and regional countries.

On June 6, Iran and Iraq’s Kurdistan region resumed trade via land border, which had been stopped for several weeks due to the coronavirus outbreak.

As announced by the deputy governor-general of Iran’s western Kordestan Province, Bashmaq border market between Iran and Iraq’s Kurdistan region resumed working after several weeks.

Khaled Jafari said that delegations from both sides met in the western Iranian city of Marivan last week and decided to open the border market observing the health protocols.

The trucks have to pass sanitizing tunnels at both sides of the border, the official noted.

The same day, the land borders between Iran and Turkey reopened after more than three months, and 150 Iranian trucks entered Turkey in a single day, as announced by the spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration (IRICA).

Rouhollah Latifi said that the mentioned trucks entered Turkey via three land borders of Bazargan, Sero, and Razi.

Also, 35 Turkish trucks entered Iran as the borders reopened, Latifi announced.

The long-awaited measure came more than a week after Iranian and Turkish presidents discussed the reopening of air and land borders between the two countries now that the pandemic has slowed down.

Also on Monday, Iran's Mehran crossing on the border with Iraq, which had been closed since early March due to the outbreak of coronavirus, was reopened, Latifi announced.

The border crossing resumed operation following several rounds of talks with Iraqi officials, according to the IRICA spokesman.

Latifi said the border is not going to be open every day, and for the current week it will be open only on Monday and Wednesday and as of the next week cargoes will be allowed to cross on Sundays and Wednesdays every week.

According to the official, 250 trucks carrying export goods to Iraq are scheduled to cross this border each day, so a total of 500 trucks will cross the border every week.

Health protocols are strictly applied on Mehran crossing, having all workers use protective equipment and the area and cargo continually disinfected, according to Latifi.

MA/MA