Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for
spontaneouslytaking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet
militiasto extend the regime's influence. The word
Iranis a cognate form of
Aryan.The abbreviation
IRGCis the same idea as
Stürmabteilung (or SA).The term
Supreme Guideis a the modern version form of either
Duceor
Führeror maybe both. They hate
vowed to respond to a U.S. blockade by pushing more trade overland. On the ground, it isn’t going according to plan.
Hundreds of Iranian truck drivers are currently stuck at Iran’s border with Pakistain, unable to send their goods into Tehran’s neighbor. They say they are facing worsening bureaucratic hurdles and costs, many caused by their own government. The same thing is happening at Iran’s land borders with
...a NATO
...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It's headquartered in Belgium. That sez it all....
member, but not the most reliable...
, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan, dealing Tehran a self-inflicted blow and throttling trade through its few remaining economic release valves.
Tons of stranded apricots have been spoiled because of the delays. Lucrative cargoes of iron ore, cement and bottled gas are stuck at entry points to the Pak and Afghan borders, truckers say.
"Neither Iran is taking responsibility for the situation, nor is Pakistain allowing us to unload our cargo," one driver says in a video posted by the Union of Truckers and Drivers Organizations Across Iran over the weekend.
The economic war in the Persian Gulf is dictated as much by how much the countries in the region can move their exports over land rather than through the Strait of Hormuz. Some have found workarounds. Saudi Arabia
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...is moving more of its oil west across the Arabian Peninsula. The U.S. Navy is helping some of the Gulf nations shift their oil through the strait.
Iran’s attempts are faltering. The U.S. is isolating its economy with new sanctions and launching strikes on Iranian tankers in reprisal for Tehran’s attacks on its Navy, collapsing seaborne exports.
In another setback for Iran’s plans to bypass Hormuz, the country’s Mahan Air, which is sanctioned by the U.S., said Wednesday that it was suspending flights to Oman and Turkey, state-affiliated media in Tehran said. Last week, the U.S. Treasury imposed new sanctions on companies it said were supporting Mahan, which operates cargo and passenger services.
The U.S. blockade has also hurt Iran’s imports of basic goods, 70% of which normally go through the blockaded ports. Though humanitarian goods and food are ostensibly exempt, the reality is that shippers are reluctant to service Iran.
Videos posted on social media last week show cranes at the Port of Shahid Rajaee, Iran’s largest commercial container port, at a standstill. Thousands of containers are stranded in ports in Pakistain, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, transportation professionals in Tehran last month told the Mehr News Agency
...And if you can't believe Mehr News Agency who can you believe?...
, which is affiliated with Iranian security services.
Iran has tried to compensate by pushing more trade through other routes. Transits across the Caspian Sea have grown by 70% in the past five months, according to Iranian officials. Iran imports large quantities of its wheat, corn and cooking oil from Russia, according to commodities data provider Kpler and Iranian trading websites.
"We are trying to turn this threat into an opportunity," Hadi Haghshenas, the governor of the Iranian province of Gilan, on the Caspian Sea, told state news agency IRNA in late August.
A freight railroad from Tehran to Xi’an in eastern China has jumped from once-a-week journeys to every three or four days since the blockade started, according to the state-controlled Tehran Times. Iran imports industrial machinery, electronics and automotive spare parts from China.
But in a sign of how vulnerable the alternative routes are, Iraq over the weekend temporarily closed cargo terminals at the Iran border after alleging Iran had used its territory to attack Saudi Arabia. On Sunday, trucks carrying Iranian onions bound for Iraq were forced to turn back as a result, according to Tehran’s Central Fruit and Vegetable Market.
Iran’s land borders were a mess before these latest closures, though. This summer, for example, the number of trucks going through Pishin, one of the main crossings into Pakistain, increased from about 40 vehicles to as many as 130 vehicles a day, local governor Rahimbakhsh Balidehei told the semiofficial ISNA News Agency. The result is that customs officers across Iran’s land borders are struggling to cope, Ehsan Malekzadeh, chairman of the Iranian International Transport Companies Association, told the Mehr News Agency.
People gathered at the Iraq-Iran border after the Shalamsheh border crossing was closed.
Malekzadeh said 3,700 trucks were stranded on the Iranian side of the crossing to Turkey, with delays reaching 20 days. At the main crossing into Pakistain, 700 trucks—mostly carrying bottled gas and cement—are waiting at any time, but only 40 are allowed to cross, according to the Baloch Human Rights Documentation Network, a local civic group.
One driver told Iran’s official news agency IRNA he was stuck for days at the Pakistain side of the border with meat destined for Iran, where prices are spiraling higher. At the border with Afghanistan, truckers also complain they have to wait for days before being able to export Iranian iron ore, according to Iran’s Truckers’ Union.
Iranian truckers trying to get into Pakistain say they can be stuck for several days without access to water, food or sanitation as temperatures rise to 122 degrees Fahrenheit, according to footage, published by the Truckers’ Union on its social-media account. The union said some bottled-gas tankers are crossing into Pakistain. But the Pak authorities asked Iranian drivers for the equivalent of more than $10,000 each to cross, an unprecedented amount, it said. A front man for Pakistain’s Foreign Ministry said he wasn’t aware of any new charges or restrictions at Pakistain’s border with Iran.
Meanwhile,
...back at the desert island, Irene was indignant at the thought of doing such a thing without benefit of clergy...
at the border with Turkmenistan, the gateway to China, transporters complain of constraints tied to a lack of warehouses and of a proper registration process to bring goods by rail to China. One businessman complained it was increasingly difficult to bring in automotive spare parts from the Asian powerhouse.
The rising costs are now adding to Iran’s worsening inflation problem.
In some cases, the overland bottlenecks and diversions now contribute as much as a third of the price for common goods once they reach Tehran, Mohammad Reza Khodarahm, an import-sector expert, told Iranian economic daily Donya-e-Eqtesad last week. Majidreza Hariri, the president of the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce, earlier predicted that the U.S. naval blockade would cost $18 billion a year in extra outlays. The cost of transporting one container from China to Iran costs $12,000 via land routes compared with $3,000 by sea, he told KhabarOnline, an independent website close to regime moderates.
Much of these costs are being passed on to consumers, with unpredictable results for the Iranian leadership. Food inflation rose to 128% in August, according to Iran’s official statistics office.