ITI rail link opens in blow to US bid to isolate Iran

The first freight train to run from Pakistan to Turkey through Iran has departed after a 10-year hiatus in a major boost to the trading credentials of the three founders of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).

According to Press TV, the 6,540 km journey from Islamabad to Europe's largest city will take 10 days, less than half the time needed for the equivalent voyage of 21 days by sea.

The train left a depot at Margala Station in the Pakistan capital to the Turkish city on the Bosphorus Strait on Tuesday, hauling dozens of containers.

It will cover 1,990 km inside Pakistan, passing through Quetta into Taftan at the Iranian border and on to Tehran and Tabriz over a 2,603 km stretch before ending up in Istanbul through Ankara.

The three countries launched the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul (ITI) container train service in 2009, but it only got as far as test runs and was never fully operational.

Even so, they always planned to follow up the initial freight trains with passenger services and operationalize the ITI transnational line with the aim of enhancing connectivity with China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

"The start of the container train from Pakistan to Iran and Turkey was a long-standing dream of the countries of the region, which came true again," Pakistan's Railways Minister Azam Khan Swati told the opening of the project.

He said strengthening and expanding ECO rail cooperation can contribute to regional stability and peace.

"Regional business cohesion is in dire need of important projects such as the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul railway," Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said.

"As one of the most effective vehicles, the ECO train can virtually help expand exports, imports and trade among the member countries," Adviser to Prime Minister of Pakistan for Commerce and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood told the ceremony.

The ITI, by extension, will connect to China's Xinjiang autonomous region which is populated by ethnically Turkic Uighur Muslims and further boost BRI, a trillion-dollar plan to connect the infrastructure and economies of countries across Asia, Africa and Europe.

China regards Iranian transport in particular as part of BRI and has sought close involvement in the build-out of the West Asian nation's infrastructure. The ITI railroad, on the other hand, will help Iran move around US sanctions.

For Tehran, this is an attractive alternative trade route because the ECO countries trade in local currencies.

ECO stands for the Economic Cooperation Organization, a 10-member political and economic intergovernmental organization founded in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey.

ME