Iran activates land routes to bypass US blockade

{"text":[[{"start":9.8,"text":"It is early in the morning and, near the front of the long queue of lorries waiting to enter Iran from Turkey’s Gürbulak border crossing, Iranian truck driver Ashgar has spent all night inching forward his Chinese 375-horsepower Dongfeng rig."}],[{"start":25.52,"text":"Behind him, on a freshly tarred four-lane highway, stretches a 7km line of trucks — testament to how Tehran has sought to radically shift its trade routes since the US-Israeli war against Iran began in February, and the problems that this strategy faces."}],[{"start":40.96,"text":"“Lots of Iranian cargo traffic that would normally go through the Strait of Hormuz is now coming overland, through here,” said Ashgar, 41, who declined to give his surname. “That’s why the waiting times have increased,” he sighed. “But I love Turkey. It always stands with Iran.”"}],[{"start":58.92,"text":"Before the war, more than 80 per cent of Iran’s two-way trade of about 180mn tonnes a year moved by sea from its southern coast on the Gulf. But with the US naval blockade and shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, Iran has now sought to shift that trade to overland routes. Ashgar was driving an empty tanker back to Iran after delivering a load of bitumen to Turkey."}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":81.76,"text":"Iran is drawing on decades of sanctions-evasion experience and its land borders with seven countries, particularly Turkey, to continue importing consumer goods, animal feed and ingredients for pharmaceuticals while exporting products such as aluminium, bitumen, building materials and detergents."}],[{"start":99.52,"text":"To some extent, the strategy has worked: in the first half of the year, bilateral trade with Turkey increased by 19 per cent to $3.2bn, according to Turkish data. At Gürbulak alone, imports to Iran rose 250 per cent in the five months to August 12, according to Iranian customs."}],[{"start":118.48,"text":"However, poor infrastructure, lengthy customs checks and other bottlenecks have caused delays, raising costs for Iranian consumers who already face inflation of 90 per cent. Even if Iran doubles its imports and exports overland and across the Caspian Sea, it would not make up for the lost maritime trade, experts say."}],[{"start":149.48,"text":"Border crossings “far from the conflict zone [that] have not suffered any damage” still suffer from long delays, said Ali Akbar Zarif, vice-president of Iran’s Union of Truck Driver Co-operatives. “Management needs to be improved.”"}],[{"start":151.76,"text":"To make matters worse, the US is threatening “secondary” sanctions on Iran’s trading partners by air and sea, which seems to have further boosted the number of trucks using the Iran-Turkey land border. About 500 are already crossing from Turkey into Iran each day, with freight traffic up about 30 per cent from last year."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":170.88,"text":"A Turkish driver called Yakup, taking old Toyota cars into Iran, said he might have to wait 24 days at the border on his return to Turkey — a wait so long that he was planning to go home for a while and come back to his truck later. “There is nowhere to go to the loo,” he despaired."}],[{"start":186.96,"text":"Yet Gürbulak-Bazargan is one of Iran’s better-equipped land crossings, truckers said, having recently been upgraded. Conditions are far worse elsewhere."}],[{"start":196.204,"text":"Pakistan — which wants Iranian petroleum products and can offer a connection with China but has limited transit capacity — is “terrible”, said Ashgar as he cooked breakfast beside his truck."}],[{"start":207.36,"text":"As for Afghanistan, Iranian trucker Rahim Ariaizadeh said he spent 23 days waiting at its Dogharoun crossing in mid-June."}],[{"start":null,"text":""}],[{"start":214.84,"text":"Iraq can be difficult too. Baghdad last Saturday closed two crucial border crossings with Iran following drone attacks on Saudi Arabia’s East-West oil pipeline that had originated from Iraqi territory, though they both reopened a few days later."}],[{"start":228.88,"text":"Iran’s railways are important as well. Officials say its 13 rail border crossings, including those leading to China and Russia via Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, are all operating and have been handling more cargo since the start of the war."}],[{"start":243.2,"text":"Caspian Sea ports are linked to road and rail networks, but falling water levels restrict vessel drafts and port capacity, limiting how much traffic to Russia, central Asia and China the ports can absorb, analysts said."}],[{"start":254.84,"text":"And diverting trade from sea to land comes at a cost. Majid Reza Hariri, president of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, has estimated that moving Iran’s China trade overland instead of by sea would cost an extra $18bn a year."}],[{"start":272.2,"text":"Washington’s secondary sanctions on those who trade with Iran are increasing the pressure on the Iranians."}],[{"start":278.68,"text":"Last week, the US sanctioned 27 Iranian airlines and three Turkish aviation and logistics companies, accusing them of helping Iranian aviation “which the regime uses to move weapons, personnel and illicit cargo”. It also warned financial institutions of the risks of dealing with the sector — a move that could hamper Iran’s already limited air connections with the outside world."}],[{"start":302.4,"text":"Late on Wednesday, Turkey’s Savings Deposit Insurance Fund (TMSF) took control of Golden Global Bank, the first significant Turkish regulatory action against the lender since it was sanctioned by the US over alleged Iran-linked transactions."}],[{"start":317.4,"text":"Turkish finance minister Mehmet Şimşek said last week that Ankara “had taken note” of US moves, and that all Turkish companies must act in “full compliance with national regulations”."}],[{"start":328.8,"text":"In an illustration of how difficult Iran’s trade financing has become, Şimşek also stressed that Turkey did not pay Iran directly for the approximately $2.5bn of natural gas it imports by pipeline each year. Payments are instead placed in a “ringfenced account” agreed with Washington, from which Iran finances only sanctions-permitted purchases such as food and medicine, he said."}],[{"start":352.92,"text":"Iran, already cut off from the international finance system since Trump imposed “maximum pressure” in his first term, has put a brave face on the difficulties. The US blockade has curtailed Iran’s crude oil sales, the lifeblood of its economy. But officials insist that oil revenues keep flowing, thanks in part to a brief waiver in mid-June that Iran used to ship around 80mn barrels of crude outside the blockaded zone, now held in floating storage."}],[{"start":379.72,"text":"Even so, Iran’s non-oil exports shrank by 28 per cent to $15bn and imports by 26 per cent to $17bn in the five months ending August 22 compared to last year, according to Iranian customs."}],[{"start":392.46,"text":"“Under these circumstances, there is little alternative but to find a way to restore and maintain the southern trade corridors” through the Gulf, said a veteran member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, who asked to remain anonymous."}],[{"start":405.72,"text":"In the meantime, Turkey’s dusty Gürbulak border crossing, which lies beneath the slopes of Mount Ararat, the fabled landing place of Noah’s Ark after the flood subsided, is more important than ever."}],[{"start":417.76,"text":"Some of the Scania, Mercedes, MAN and other trucks parked by the roadside had hauled trailers of old cars from Mersin, a Turkish port on the Mediterranean, to be fixed and sold in Iran. Others carried furniture or chemicals."}],[{"start":432.2,"text":"Their patently bored drivers were geopolitically well informed, having little better to do than drink tea in the shade of their trucks and scan their smartphones."}],[{"start":441.76,"text":"Farshid, who said he had trucked Iranian aluminium into Turkey and was now driving Turkish PVC cargoes back to Iran, said he sometimes delivered as far as Bandar Abbas, a heavily bombed port at the head of the Gulf that used to handle most of Iran’s container traffic."}],[{"start":457.4,"text":"“We drive by roads, tunnels and bridges that have been bombed, but our driving times are unchanged and we’ve become used to the dangers,” he said."}],[{"start":466.62,"text":"But then Farshid, who declined to give his full name, added that he had heard that Turkish airports might soon close to Iranian airlines given the latest US sanctions, and that the talk among his trucker friends was that the Turkish land border might close as well."}],[{"start":481.225,"text":"“The US and Turkey are such close allies, and their presidents are such good friends,” he said. “Anything can happen.”"}],[{"start":492.56,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1789782317_6187.mp3"}