After the air and sea routes, the United States now wants to close off Iran completely by land as well. But Washington’s plan has suffered a major setback: despite heavy US pressure, three of Iran’s neighbours, Iraq, Turkey and Pakistan, have refused outright to close their borders with Iran.
The New York Times reported this, saying the US administration had for some time been pressing neighbouring countries to shut down Iran’s overland trade completely. The United States had earlier all but cut off Iran’s commercial links with tough sanctions on sea and air routes.
US Central Command recently announced a new unit, Task Force Iron Gate, to stop weapons and banned goods moving across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea. The Florida-based unit will not fight directly; its job is to press neighbouring countries to stop trading with Iran. The US side asked Iraq to keep only two routes open on its border with Iran and close every other crossing.
Iraq did not agree, though it has at times closed some routes temporarily for security reasons. Turkey has made no change to its border policy, and Pakistan, while occasionally closing the border on internal security grounds, has not stopped trade altogether.
The main reason for the neighbours’ reluctance is their own economies. They fear that a strict border clampdown would damage their economies and hurt ordinary people in border areas who depend on the trade, which could lead to unrest.
Meanwhile, the United States wants to gain by raising economic pressure on Iran rather than by military strikes. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the economic pressure on Iran was now extremely intense, and if the goal could be reached this way there would be no need for new war or bombing.
Iran, for its part, is not sitting still. Tehran has stepped up diplomacy to counter the US Iron Gate strategy. It remains to be seen whether the neighbours hold firm under US pressure or tighten their borders as Washington asks.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report