Iran, Iraq to Launch 1st Passenger Shipping Line

TEHRAN, (ST)- Iranian and Iraqi provincial officials have decided to launch the first passenger shipping line between Iran’s Southwestern port city of Abadan and the port city of Basra in Southeastern Iraq, an official announced on Tuesday.

“The  first shipping line between Abadan and Basra in Iraq will be launched soon,” Governor of Abadan city Bahram Ilkhaszadeh told FNA, adding that the port city of Abadan with a well-equipped terminal enjoys good potentials and capacities to this end.

He said that the passenger shipping line will be launched based on a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the governorates of Khuzestan and Basra province.

He said Basra governor-general had earlier travelled to Iran through the same shipping line, and added that a 400-strong passenger vessel belonging to the private sector is now operation under the shipping line and will carry passengers between Abadan and Basra.

The officials of Iran’s Southern provinces and Iraq’s Basra province have recently doubled their efforts to increase commercial exchanges between the two sides.

An Iranian provincial economic official in 2010 announced the inauguration of Iran’s second trade center in the Iraqi province of Basra.

“To make a maximum use of the capacity of Iranian producers and to promote (the Iranian cooperative sector’s) international relations in area of commerce, we will witness the start of operation of the second trade center of Iran’s cooperative sector in Iraq’s Basra province,” Secretary of Iran’s Southwestern province of Khuzestan’s Chamber of Cooperatives Daqqar Savarri told FNA.

H.SH