*WASHINGTON/KABUL: U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out ofthe Iran nuclear accord and re-impose sanctions on Tehran threatens toderail a project to help build Afghanistan’s economy, endangering a keygoal of the U.S. strategy to end America’s longest war.*

The Indian-backed Chabahar port complex in Iran is being developed as partof a new transportation corridor for land-locked Afghanistan that couldpotentially open the way for millions of dollars in trade and cut itsdependence on Pakistan.

Building Afghanistan’s economy would also slash Kabul’s dependence onforeign aid and put a major dent in the illicit opium trade, the Taliban’smain revenue source.

But Trump’s decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran and penalize financialinstitutions for doing business with Tehran is clouding Chabahar’sviability as banks, nervous they could be hit with crippling penalties,pull back from financing.

“President Trump’s decision has brought us back to the drawing board and wewill have to renegotiate terms and conditions on using Chabahar,” a seniorIndian diplomat said. “It is a route that can change the wayIndia-Iran-Afghanistan do business, but for now everything is in a state ofuncertainty.”

The White House did not respond to requests for comment.

Launched in 2016, the joint Iran-India-Afghanistan Chabahar project alreadywas facing holdups. It has yet to see significant traffic apart from somecontainers of donated wheat from India, and the first shipments of Afghandried fruit to India are not expected before July.

At least three contracts to build infrastructure at the port now have beendelayed, with two Chinese companies and a Finnish group left hanging whilebankers seek clarity from Washington before approving guarantees, a personclose to the project said.

In addition, Afghan traders, who were hoping for an alternative toPakistan’s port of Karachi, now find themselves cut off from funding andforced to rely on the traditional hawala money transfer system, which isinsufficient on its own to transform an economy. Hawala is a trust-basedsystem commonly used in Afghanistan that involves the movement of fundsbetween agents in different countries.

“We know our correspondent banks would not let us pay for imports comingthrough that port,” said a senior executive at one major Afghan lender.

Chabahar is among a number of projects of transport and energy networksprojects designed to boost Afghanistan’s trade and lay the foundations fora mining industry capable of exploiting its billions of dollars in untappedmineral reserves.

Bypassing the border with Pakistan, which last year was closed for some 50days over various disputes, Chabahar is seen as a way for Afghanistan toconsolidate its relationships with India and other regional powers.

“The only way to get India more involved” in Afghanistan’s economicdevelopment “is through Chabahar,” said Barnett Rubin, an expert with NewYork University’s Center for International Cooperation and a former adviserto the State Department and the United Nations. “Our Iran policy is headedfor a train wreck with our Afghanistan policy.”