ISLAMABAD – Iran and Pakistan need to intensify efforts to open two newgates at their shared border to facilitate trade and strengthenpeople-to-people contacts, Iranian ambassador Mehdi Honardoost said onTuesday.”Opening the crossing points of Mand-Pishin and Gabd-Rimdan has an immensepotential to improve border cooperation between Pakistan and Iran,” theIranian envoy told APP here on the sidelines of an event.At present, the two countries have a single operational crossing point atTaftan on Pakistan side and Mirjaveh on Iran side, used for border tradeand movement of people from both sides.Honardoost stressed early implementation of the already agreed upon twoadditional crossing points at Pak-Iran border, terming it a significantstep to encourage economic activity between the two countries.The Iranian envoy also called for expediting the launch of proposed ferryline between Iran’s Chabahar port and Karachi, saying the service wouldgreatly facilitate the commuters from both sides as 95 percent of themcrossed through land route.He said the ferry service would turn out to be an economically viableproject for millions of Pakistanis who regularly visited Iran forcommercial and religious purposes.However, he stressed ensuring necessary arrangements on both sidesincluding electricity and laying of fibre optic cable to maximum facilitatethe travellers.On twelve Iranian border security guards who were abducted from Lulakdanarea of Pak-Iran border in October last, Honardoost said there was noupdate on the remaining seven guards after five of them were recovered byPakistani security forces in November.He said the Director General Military Operations from the two sides werecoordinating actions in this regard, however there was no clue of themissing five, to date.
Two new border gates, ferry service and optic fibre network proposed between Pakistan and Iran
