{"id":136096,"date":"2017-12-04T03:00:10","date_gmt":"2017-12-04T08:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=136096"},"modified":"2017-12-04T03:00:10","modified_gmt":"2017-12-04T08:00:10","slug":"iran-inaugurates-new-extension-to-its-main-arabian-sea-port","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2017\/12\/04\/iran-inaugurates-new-extension-to-its-main-arabian-sea-port\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran inaugurates new extension to its main Arabian Sea port"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Hassan Rouhani
(Photo By GTVM92 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

TEHRAN, Iran \u2014 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated on Sunday a newly built extension to the country’s main Arabian Sea outlet, the strategic Chabahar Port on the Gulf of Oman, which more than triples its capacity and poses a challenge for a port under construction in neighbouring Pakistan.<\/p>\n

The $340 million project was constructed by a Revolutionary Guard-affiliated company, Khatam al-Anbia, the largest Iranian contractor of government construction projects. It involved several subcontractors, including a state-run Indian company, and brings the capacity of the port to 8.5 million tons of cargo annually, from the previous 2.5 million tons.<\/p>\n

The extension includes five new piers, two of them for containers allowing cargo vessels with up to 100,000-ton captaincy to dock.<\/p>\n

It is also expected to make Chabahar, Iran’s closest sea link to the Indian Ocean, a rival to Gwadar Port, some 80 kilometres away (50 miles) across the border in Pakistan, which Pakistan has been building with Chinese investment.<\/p>\n

Rouhani, however, downplayed the rivalry in his inauguration speech and said the port will bring \u201cmore engagement and unity\u201d among regional countries.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should go after positive competition,\u201d he said. \u201cWe welcome other ports in the region, we welcome Gwadar’s development.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said Iran also plans to link the port to the country’s railroad network to facilitate transit of goods to neighbouring landlocked Central Asian countries, as well as open a route to eastern and northern Europe through Russia.<\/p>\n

Iranian state TV said the inauguration was attended by dignitaries from India, Qatar, Afghanistan, Pakistan and other countries.<\/p>\n

For India, the investment in Chabahar was important since the port will bolster a trade route for land-locked Central Asian countries that would bypass rival Pakistan. Last year, India committed up to $500 million for the development of the Chabahar port along with associated roads and rail lines.<\/p>\n

And last month, New Delhi shipped its first cargo of wheat to Afghanistan through the Iranian port, part of 130,000 tons that India plans to export to Afghanistan.<\/p>\n

Chabahar also has an international airport and Iran’s Navy and Air Force have bases in the city, adding to the ports value.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TEHRAN, Iran \u2014 Iranian President Hassan Rouhani inaugurated on Sunday a newly built extension to the country’s main Arabian Sea …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":123695,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,17],"tags":[36907,312,36906],"class_list":["post-136096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-w","tag-arabian-sea-port","tag-iran","tag-iranian-president-hassan-rouhani","mauthors-nasser-karimi","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}