First Rail Network Opens Between Iran and Afghanistan

An Iranian goods train carrying tonnes of agricultural products chugged into a western Afghan province Thursday as the two countries marked the opening of their first shared railway network.

The train route so far links the Iranian city of Khaf with the Afghan town of Rozanak about 150 kilometres (95 miles) away, but is scheduled to be expanded to reach Herat, Afghanistan's third largest city.

Crowds of Afghans gathered at Rozanak station for the arrival of the first blue painted train.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, addressing the ceremony via video link, welcomed the move as an "important step for economic revival and development in both the countries".

The project was a gateway to Europe for Afghanistan, said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani.

"I see the prosperity of Iran and Afghanistan in this railway," he said, also speaking via video link from Tehran.

"The development, security and stability of Afghanistan (contributes to) development, security and stability in Iran and the entire region."

Residents of Rozanak welcomed the new link.

"It is going to change our villages, towns and cities into business hubs," said Arbab Ghulam Reza, a farmer from Rozanak.

"It was also very difficult for our young boys to go to Iran for work. Now they can simply buy a train ticket and go."

Once completed, the 225 kilometre network would help transport six million tonnes of goods and a million passengers annually, officials said.

The Khaf-Herat network would later be connected to Central Asian and Chinese rail networks, officials said.

Decades of war and neglect have destroyed Afghanistan's infrastructure, making its roads and bridges nearly impassable.

But despite the worsening security situation, efforts to rebuild roads and railway networks have always been a top priority of the Afghan government and the donor community.

In 2016, the first railway link between northern neighbour Turkmenistan and Afghanistan opened. That link is planned to eventually extend to Tajikistan.

Coronavirus entered Afghanistan in February, as thousands of migrants returned from neighbouring Iran, which at the time was the region's worst-hit nation.

Afghanistan briefly suspended land and air routes with Iran, before reopening all of its borders with the country.

Photo: YJC

Afghan Foreign Minister Visits Iran Amid Tensions Over Migrant Deaths

Afghanistan's interim foreign minister met with his Iranian counterpart on Sunday in Tehran as tensions persist between the two neighbors after the deaths in May of Afghan migrants at the border.

Iran's state news agency IRNA published a photo Sunday of the meeting between Afghanistan's Mohammad Hanif Atmar and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, both wearing face masks.

The two-day visit aims to discuss "recent unfortunate events (and) find solutions to avoid them happening again", Afghanistan's foreign ministry said Saturday on Twitter, without elaborating.

Atmar heads "a high-level delegation including Afghan political, economic and security officials", IRNA said, citing a statement from the Iranian foreign ministry released earlier.

The visit follows controversy over the deaths in May of several Afghan migrants who were allegedly forced into a river by Iranian border guards and drowned.

Afghan officials claim the migrants died while they were illegally crossing into neighboring Iran from Herat province.

Eighteen bodies, some bearing signs of torture and beatings, were recovered from the Harirud river, while other migrants were reported missing, in an incident that sparked anger and protests in Afghanistan.

One Afghan official said 55 migrants were forced into the river.

Iranian authorities have dismissed the claims, saying the incident occurred inside Afghanistan's territory.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered an investigation into the drownings, a move welcomed by the United States, at a time of heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran.

The meeting also comes after an incident earlier this month in the central Iranian city of Yazd in which three Afghans died and several others were injured after a car chase with police, Iranian media reported.

According to one Iranian official, the driver of the vehicle "defied police instructions and failed to stop at a checkpoint".

According to UN refugee agency UNHCR, around 3.5 million Afghans, including almost a million refugees, live in Iran.

Tens of thousands returned to Afghanistan after the start of the novel coronavirus outbreak, but as restrictions have eased in hard-hit Iran, many are again seeking work there.

Photo: IRNA

Iran and India Agree to Speed up Major Port Project

Tehran and Delhi have agreed to accelerate the development of an important Iranian port, India's foreign minister said during a visit to the sanctions-hit Islamic republic on Monday.

Chabahar port—being jointly developed by India, Iran and Afghanistan—is on the Indian Ocean about 100 kilometres (62 miles) west of the Pakistan border.

But development has stalled, despite waivers to sanctions that the United States began reimposing last year after withdrawing from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.

"Just concluded a very productive #IndiaIran Joint Commission Meeting," Indian Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar tweeted.

"Reviewed the entire gamut of our cooperation. Agreed on accelerating our Chabahar project," he added as he wound up a two-day visit to the Iranian capital.

Washington withdrew from the nuclear accord and reimposed sanctions on Tehran as part of a campaign of "maximum pressure" aimed at reducing its arch-enemy's regional role and missile programme.

The rare exemptions from the sanctions are due mainly to the pivotal role of the port, and a planned railway line, in breaking landlocked Afghanistan's dependence on Pakistan for trade.

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Monday in a joint news conference with Jaishankar that the project would boost trade in the region.

"Completing the Chabahar-Zahedan railway and connecting it to Iran's national railway can elevate the position of Chabahar port, revolutionise regional commerce and help transport goods on a cheaper and shorter route," he said.

Rouhani said maintaining regional security was an important topic for Iran and India.

"In the current situation where America stands against nations with unilateral sanctions, we have to try to continue bilateral cooperation.

"This situation certainly will not last, and America will be forced to stop its maximum pressure against Iran sooner or later," he said, without elaborating.

India stopped buying Iranian oil after the US abolished waivers for some countries in May, in a move meant to wipe out the Islamic republic's main source of revenue.

Despite tensions in their relationship, Iran and India have sought to move forward and develop partnerships.

Photo: IRNA

US Exempts Indian-Backed Port in Iran from Sanctions

The United States said Tuesday it would exempt Iran's Indian-backed port of Chabahar from new sanctions on Tehran, recognizing the value of the project to Afghanistan.

Iran late last year inaugurated the port on the Indian Ocean which provides a key supply route to landlocked Afghanistan and allows India to bypass its historic enemy Pakistan.

The United States will exempt from sanctions the development of Chabahar along with an attached railway project and Iranian petroleum shipments into Afghanistan, the State Department said.

President Donald Trump's "South Asia strategy underscores our ongoing support of Afghanistan's economic growth and development as well as our close partnership with India," a State Department spokesperson said.

"This exception relates to reconstruction assistance and economic development for Afghanistan. These activities are vital for the ongoing support of Afghanistan's growth and humanitarian relief," the spokesperson said.

The United States, which has been building closer relations with New Delhi since the late 1990s, earlier exempted India from sanctions that took effect on Monday.

The Trump administration has vowed to exert maximum pressure on Iran to end its support for regional proxies, exiting a denuclearization agreement that brought sanctions relief.

Trump's decision has been opposed by European powers as well as other nations including India, which has largely warm relations with Iran and accuses Pakistan of fomenting attacks on its soil.

India has poured USD 2 billion into Afghanistan since the 2001 US-led overthrow of the extremist Taliban regime, which was also opposed by Iran.

India has seen Chabahar as a key way both to send supplies to Afghanistan and to step up trade with Central Asia as well as Africa.

Iran has plans to link the port by railway to Zahedan on the Pakistani border up to Mashhad in the northeast.

Photo Credit: IRNA

Afghans Return Home in Record Numbers as Iran Currency Plunges

Migrant workers squeezed into battered taxis pull into the Four Seasons of Freedom hotel in western Afghanistan, part of a wave of Afghans forced to leave Iran after a currency implosion wiped out their earnings.

A record 442,344 Afghans have voluntarily returned or been deported from Iran this year as looming US sanctions—which began to be reimposed this week—fueled a run on the rial and spurred inflation.

Iran's currency has lost around half of its value against the dollar since US President Donald Trump abandoned a landmark 2015 nuclear deal in May, triggering a reimposition of tough penalties on the Islamic republic.

That has devastated not only the savings of Iranian households, but also the remittances of undocumented Afghans.  

Desperate and jobless Afghans have crossed the porous border with Iran for years in search of work to support their struggling families back home.

Many of those families are farmers now suffering through Afghanistan's worst drought in living memory, compounding the misery caused by 17 years of conflict and underscoring their reliance on the remittances.

Abdul Mussawir, who went to Iran three years ago, used to earn the equivalent of 18,000 afghanis per month (about USD 260) working in an auto factory in the central city of Isfahan. 

Mussawir, 22, sent money to his parents and nine younger siblings in Parwan province, supplementing the meagre income of his taxi driver father. 

But as the run on the rial gathered pace, his monthly earnings shriveled to the equivalent of 6,000 afghanis. 

"I was sending almost all the money I was earning to support my family... (but) it wasn't enough," said Mussawir, wearing a shirt emblazoned with "Keep Karma + Carry On".

After taking a taxi from the border to the Four Seasons of Freedom hotel in Herat city, a distance of roughly 140 kilometres (90 miles), Mussawir hoped to find better paid work in his conflict-torn country. 

"It doesn't make sense to come back here but I have to," he said, a look of resignation etched on his face.

No Job, No Future

The 442,344 Afghans who returned from Iran in the first seven months of 2018 was more than double the number for the same period of 2017, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

"The number of Afghan returnees from Iran in 2018 has been unprecedented," IOM spokeswoman Eva Schwoerer told AFP in Herat.

The figure included 191,056 "spontaneous", or voluntary, returns. The remaining 251,288 were deported as Iran toughens its border controls. 

Among those kicked out was 17-year-old Aleem Mohmini, who spent three months working on a tomato farm near the southern city of Shiraz before Iranian police caught him.

As he sat with other minors in the IOM's transit centre for returnees in Herat, Mohmini pondered his future in a country where unemployment is rampant.   

"I don't know what I should do. There's no one in my family to earn money," said Mohmini, who was the breadwinner for his household in the northern province of Baghlan.

The IOM expects the flood of returnees to Afghanistan to continue as US sanctions targeting Iran's access to US banknotes, key industries and oil sales exacerbate the country's economic woes.

The influx is having "direct and immediate effects" on the Afghan economy, the IOM said in its latest report.

It is pushing down wages for casual laborers in cities and fueling the displacement of drought-stricken Afghan farmers, many of whom have long relied on income from relatives working in Iran.

More than 70,000 people have been forced to move to cities due to the lack of water and food, according to the United Nations, with many of them living in makeshift tents and competing with returnees for limited jobs. 

Iran's currency freefall is also hurting Afghan businesses in Herat that rely heavily on returning Afghans for sales of mobile phones, backpacks and shoes. 

"Business was much better in the past... (people) were rich, they could buy everything," said Zia Fahmi, whose sales have plunged more than 80 percent in recent months.

As newly arrived returnees loitered outside his store, Fahmi said he may be forced to close the shop and join the migrant trail to look for work in "other countries".  

Abdullah Wasi Zahariyan, who spent a year working on a cucumber farm in Isfahan, also told AFP he plans to go to "another country"—most likely Turkey, and then Germany—if he cannot find a job in Afghanistan.

Zahariyan, 22, decided to return home after his earnings plunged 60 percent due to the devaluation of the rial.

"If there is no job in Afghanistan, there is no future," he told AFP. 

Photo Credit: Wikicommons