Iranupdated 47m ago2 min read
Iraq Closes Al-Sheeb Border Crossing With Iran Under U.S. Pressure
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Iraq closed al-Sheeb border crossing with Iran since this morning until unspecified date. Closure reportedly follows United States pressure on Baghdad to tighten sanctions on Tehran.
8 outlets told this the same way.
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Border Closures Under Pressure
Iraqi authorities closed the al-Sheeb border crossing with Iran “until an unspecified date,” and the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website confirmed the closure as coming “following a decision by the Iraqi prime minister's office.” An Iraqi source told AFP that the closures came as the United States pressured Baghdad to close more crossings to “tighten the screws on Tehran,” and two other sources said Washington wanted all border crossings closed except for one crossing in federal territory and one in the Kurdistan region.
The United States also asked “all countries bordering Iran to do the same,” while the report cited a shared border of more than 1,400 kilometers with at least eight official crossings. The report also said Iranian interior ministry spokesperson Ali Zeinivand acknowledged “disruptions to border exchanges with some neighboring countries” regarding Pakistan, while adding that such disruptions “happen in various periods, even when there is no war or sanctions.”
Hormuz, IRGC, and U.S. Costs
Brigadier General Hosein Mohebi, spokesman and deputy head of Public Relations of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of Iran, said the Strait of Hormuz “exerts economic and political pressure on the United States” and argued that “the war against Iran is the first whose cost falls on the American people.” Mohebi claimed that Trump “has lost the House of Representatives elections one hundred percent,” and he said the closure of the sea lane drives up prices as “crudes becoming more expensive” before the legislative elections.
Mohebi also said that “from the Persian Gulf five million tons of chemical fertilizers were exported daily,” and he argued that disruption to those shipments has driven up agricultural product prices. Mohebi warned that if a third phase of the conflict occurs, the United States’ defeat would be “even more contundent and profound,” and he linked that risk to oil prices already causing problems for the United States and European countries.
Sanctions Pressure and Economic Fallout
Washington’s aviation sanctions disrupted travel between Iraq and Iran, including a period when “Foreign ground-handling companies then refused to service Iranian aircraft, halting flights at four Iraqi airports.” On 2 October the Iraqi prime minister’s office announced that Iranian airlines, excluding Mahan Air, could operate up to 40 daily flights to and from Najaf, and Iraqi Airways separately announced daily services from Najaf to Tehran, Mashhad and Isfahan would resume on 8 October.
Abdulreza planned studies in Tehran around a 90-minute flight from Najaf, but he said returning meant a 12-hour road journey and that tickets that used to cost him $100 to $150 were being offered for $400 to $700. Abu Saeed booked a flight for 5 October for his mother’s cataract surgery in Shiraz, with the surgeon’s fee described as about $800, while the article said the family struggled to replace a flight with a long bus journey for an elderly patient.