Iran disputes Iraqi border claim; Pakistan trade reopens slowly

Pakistan suspended cargo traffic through the Gabd-Rimdan and Taftan crossings in Balochistan on October 17, citing security risks. On Monday, some goods started to move again. Traders told Al Jazeera that Pakistani exports such as rice and bananas were crossing, and that trucks loaded in Iran before the closure, including LPG tankers, were slowly entering Pakistan. Iran's ambassador to Pakistan, Reza Amiri Moghadam, said Tehran had placed no restrictions on exports to Pakistan, but that changes to Pakistan's E-Form import procedure had left traders unable to dispatch cargo from Iran. Pakistan's Commerce Ministry withdrew an October 3 waiver on the E-Form for imports from Iran effective October 16, according to a memorandum seen by Al Jazeera. The closure came amid a deteriorating security situation in Balochistan. On Thursday, gunmen attacked trucks waiting near the Gabd crossing on the Pakistani side, and Pakistan's military said 10 attackers and one civilian were killed. Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said it adheres to applicable sanctions regimes but did not say whether the border was open or whether Washington had pressured Islamabad. A security analyst told Al Jazeera that US maximum-pressure policy may have had a direct or indirect influence, while noting no concrete statement linked the closure to US economic policy. On the Iraq border, Iran's embassy rejected remarks by an adviser to Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi about the Chazabeh/al-Shib crossing, saying the claims harmed bilateral relations and calling on Iraqi authorities to respond. A group of people in Iraq's Maysan province protested the crossing's closure on Sunday, while the head of the Iran-Iraq joint chamber of commerce said only one border was temporarily closed and others were active.