ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — An Iraqi delegation from 10 different Iraqi ministries visited two semi-official border crossings in the Kurdistan Region with Iran in a step to recognize the border crossings as an international entry points and formalize the process.
“Our committee has come to investigate the border crossing to be informed about the economic, customs and other infrastructural aspects of it. For the sake of increasing incomes we will send a report to a supreme committee and eventually the decision rests with the central government,” Shakir al-Jabouri, the head of the Iraqi delegation, told Rudaw of the Thursday visit to Sayran-Ban.
Jabouri added that he hopes all outstanding issues, such as the airports and border crossings will be resolved.
The Sayran-Ban border crossing separates the towns of Penjwen in Sulaimani province and the city of Baneh in Iranian Kurdistan.
“If this border crossing is opened [formally], poor people will benefit from it, but if it won’t, then this area will be deserted,” Haidar Omer, a local laborer said.
The border crossing is open, but it is not an official international crossing like the three others between the Kurdistan Region and Iran.
About 300 vehicles carrying goods cross the border daily, where some 300 people work. Making the crossing an official international entry point could increase trade and ease traffic at the other points of entry.
“We have been working on the Sayran-Ban border crossing for five to six years hoping to make it international, similar to Bashmakh. Opening this border crossing [officially] will open a new door in the face of KRG’s and Iraq’s economy,” Diler Faraj, the supervisor of the border crossing, said.
Kele, another semi-official border crossing located between the Kurdish city of Qaladze in the Kurdistan Region and Sardasht on the Iranian side, also falls under the Iraqi plans.
The KRG and Iran have both expressed a desire for increased business ties following PM Nechirvan Barzani’s visit to Iran this week.
The Iranian consulate general in Sulaimani revealed plans this for a “nearly half a billion dollar” bilateral project to increase steel imports from the Kurdistan Province in Iran to the Kurdistan Region.
The progress comes after Barzani and Iraqi PM Haider al-Abadi met on Saturday.
The two prime ministers made a “good start” in rebuilding their relationship, discussing the main problems between their governments: “salaries, oil, airports, medicines, and border-crossings. Committees have been formed for them,” Barzani said of his first meeting with Abadi since the September referendum.
The KRG has three official border crossings with Iran: Haji Omran, Parviz-Khan and Bashmakh — all of which have been reopened since their closure in October.
CORRECTION: an earlier version of the story erroneously suggested that Sayran-Ban and Kele are different names for the same border crossing between Penjwen and Iran.
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