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ARA signs accord with Iranian counterpart to operate Khaf-Herat railway line
The Afghanistan Railway Authority (ARA) said this week on X that it has signed an agreement with the Iranian Railway Consortium to operate the Khaf-Herat railway line.
According to ARA, Iran will send 100,000 tons of goods via this railway line in the first year of operation. From then on, the volume will increase by 100,000 tons per year.
Bakhtur Rahman Sharaft, the head of the railway authority, said that the construction of the first phase of the 4th section of Khaf-Herat Railway Project will start next week, ARA reported.
Also, with the signing of this contract, transfer of goods will continue normally through Khaf-Herat, while work is done on the 4th section. This line is connected to Turkey and European countries through Iran and the Iranian railway network.
Earlier this year, the first trial run of cargo from Iran to Afghanistan via the Khaf-Herat railway was completed.
This shipment included 17 wagons that transferred 655 tons of railway equipment for the further construction of the rail line.
The Khaf-Herat railway is 225 kilometers long, with 140 km of the railway track traversing Afghanistan and the remaining 85 km running through Iran. The construction of the Khaf-Herat railway line, which links Khaf in eastern Iran with Herat in western Afghanistan, started in 2007. The project has a reported value of $75 million and is being funded by Iran.
Nooruddin Azizi, Minister of Commerce and Industry, says that currently the amount of trade between Kabul and Tehran totals $2 billion per year but they want this trade to grow to $10 billion dollars per year.
A number of members of a visiting Iranian delegation also say that considering the opportunity that has arisen, Afghanistan and Iran should make the most of it for the expansion of trade relations.
Amir Khan Muttaqi, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, also met with the Iranian delegation.
In this meeting, the two sides emphasized the need for more cooperation between the two countries as neighbors.
Muttaqi said that drug production in Afghanistan has been eradicated and the conditions for commercial and economic cooperation are more favorable than before.
Local officials in Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province have called on traders to help prevent drug trafficking and invest their capital in legal and productive sectors.
Jamaluddin Haqjo, deputy governor of Badakhshan, made the remarks during the opening of the first branch of the Bank-e-Millie Afghan in Fayzabad, the provincial capital.
Haqjo said thousands of people across Afghanistan are currently addicted to drugs and urged traders not to invest in drug trafficking.
Meanwhile, other local officials attending the ceremony called on people to contribute to the country’s economic development rather than oppose the government.
They said expanding economic activities could help reduce poverty and other challenges affecting thousands of families.
Officials also urged banks and traders to conduct their activities in accordance with Islamic principles.
The newly opened Bank-e-Millie Afghan branch is expected to provide banking services to residents of Badakhshan. Bank officials said government employees receiving their salaries through the bank would also be eligible for loan services in accordance with the bank’s policies.
Residents welcomed the opening of the branch, saying it would make banking services more accessible. They also called for banks to establish branches in remote districts of Badakhshan.
Officials urged traders and government institutions to support the bank by investing and using its services.
Seven Afghan migrants have been killed after a vehicle carrying Afghan migrants collided with a fuel-carrying vehicle in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province.
According to the human rights organization HalVash, the accident occurred on Friday in the Sarbaz area of Sistan and Baluchestan.
Siyavash Mohbi, the head of Iran’s traffic police in Sistan and Baluchestan, said the Afghan nationals had entered Iran illegally.
He added that nine other people were injured in the incident.
Mohbi attributed the accident to the negligence of the driver of the vehicle carrying the migrants.
The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has announced that its Contact Group on Afghanistan will meet on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
OIC Secretary-General Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed is leading a high-level delegation from the organization’s General Secretariat to participate in the UN General Assembly’s High-Level Week and hold bilateral meetings with heads of delegations from member states as well as senior UN and international officials.
The OIC will also convene its Annual Coordination Meeting of Member States’ Foreign Ministers at UN Headquarters.
According to the organization, several ministerial contact groups and specialized committees will meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly. These include groups focusing on Palestine, Muslim communities and minorities, regional issues in Europe, Jammu and Kashmir, Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, and Afghanistan.
The OIC did not provide a specific date for the Afghanistan Contact Group meeting.
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