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Sudani Lays Foundation for Iraq-Iran Railway

A handout picture provided by the Iranian Vice President's Media Office shows Vice President Mohammad Mokhber (L) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani laying the foundation stone for the railway connection project at the Shalamja border crossing in Iraq's southern province of Basra Governorate on September 2, 2023. (Iranian Vice-Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the Iranian Vice President's Media Office shows Vice President Mohammad Mokhber (L) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani laying the foundation stone for the railway connection project at the Shalamja border crossing in Iraq's southern province of Basra Governorate on September 2, 2023. (Iranian Vice-Presidency / AFP)
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Sudani Lays Foundation for Iraq-Iran Railway

A handout picture provided by the Iranian Vice President's Media Office shows Vice President Mohammad Mokhber (L) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani laying the foundation stone for the railway connection project at the Shalamja border crossing in Iraq's southern province of Basra Governorate on September 2, 2023. (Iranian Vice-Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the Iranian Vice President's Media Office shows Vice President Mohammad Mokhber (L) and Iraq's Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani laying the foundation stone for the railway connection project at the Shalamja border crossing in Iraq's southern province of Basra Governorate on September 2, 2023. (Iranian Vice-Presidency / AFP)

Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani laid on Saturday the foundation stone of a railway between his country and neighboring Iraq.

A ceremony was held at the Shalamja border crossing with Iran in the southern Basra province in Iraq. Present at the event was Iranian First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber, underscoring the importance of the occasion.

The establishment will be a milestone in the transport of travelers and visitors of holy sites from Iran and central Asian countries.

Baghdad and Tehran agreed to establish the railway in 2021.

Mokhber told Iranian media that he expects the volume of trade between the neighbors to witness a “massive leap” after the completion of the railway connection between Basra and Shalamja.

He said the project will be complete within the next two years, adding that it consolidates relations between Iraq and Iran.

Sudani has said that the railway will be limited to the transport of travelers, but Mokhber’s remarks revealed that Iran aims to transport goods, a move opposed by Iraqi political circles given its impact on operations at Iraq’s Grand Faw Port.

Iraq is planning to kick off the implementation of the Development Road plan that stretches from Basra, where the port is located, to Iraq’s northern-most point. It would then pass through Türkiye, then Europe. Over a billion dollars have been spent on the project.

An informed source told Asharq Al-Awsat that the railway connection agreement was signed during the term of Iraqi former Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi.

It stressed that the railway will be restricted to the transport of travelers, not goods.

Moreover, the railway carriages are not designed to carry goods, only passengers, it added.

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Syria’s New Rulers Declare Crackdown as Tensions Flare in Coastal Area

Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
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Syria’s New Rulers Declare Crackdown as Tensions Flare in Coastal Area

Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)
Syrian opposition forces stop a vehicle as they form a checkpoint after taking control of the port of Tartous in western Syria on December 16, 2024. (AFP)

Syria's new authorities on Thursday launched a security crackdown in a coastal region where 14 policemen were killed a day before, vowing to pursue "remnants" of the ousted Bashar al-Assad government accused of the attack, state media reported.

The violence in Tartous province, part of the coastal region that is home to many members of Assad's Alawite sect, has marked the deadliest challenge yet to the new authorities which swept him from power on Dec. 8.

The new administration's security forces launched the operation to "control security, stability, and civil peace, and to pursue the remnants of Assad's militias in the woods and hills" in Tartous' rural areas, state news agency SANA reported.

Members of the Alawite minority wielded huge sway in Assad-led Syria, dominating security forces he used against his opponents during the 13-year-long civil war, and to crush dissent during decades of bloody oppression by his police state.

Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the former al-Qaeda affiliate which led the opposition campaign that toppled Assad, has repeatedly vowed to protect minority religious groups.

SANA reported that Mohammed Othman, the newly appointed governor of the coastal Latakia region that adjoins the Tartous area, met Alawite sheikhs to "encourage community cohesion and civil peace on the Syrian coast".

HOMS PROTEST

The Syrian information ministry declared a ban on what it described as "the circulation or publication of any media content or news with a sectarian tone aimed at spreading division" among Syrians.

The Syrian civil war took on sectarian dimensions as Assad drew on Shiite militias from across the Middle East, mobilized by his ally Iran, to battle the revolt.

Dissent has also surfaced in the city of Homs, 150 km (90 miles) north of Damascus. State media reported that police imposed an overnight curfew on Wednesday night, following unrest linked to demonstrations that residents said were led by members of the Alawite and Shiite religious communities.

Footage posted on social media on Wednesday from Homs showed a crowd of people scattering, and some of them running, as gunfire was heard. Reuters verified the location. It was not clear who was opening fire.

Assad's long-time Shiite regional ally, Iran, has criticized the course of events in Syria in recent days.

On Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called on Syrian youth to "stand with firm determination against those who have orchestrated and brought about this insecurity".

Khamenei forecast "that a strong and honorable group will also emerge in Syria because today Syrian youth have nothing to lose", calling the country unsafe.

Syria's newly appointed foreign minister, Asaad Hassan al-Shibani, said in a social media post on Tuesday that Iran must respect the will of the Syrian people and Syria's sovereignty and security.

"We warn them against spreading chaos in Syria and we hold them accountable for the repercussions of the latest remarks," he said.

Lebanon said on Thursday it was looking forward to having the best neighborly relations with Syria, in its first official message to the new administration in Damascus.

Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah played a major role propping up Assad during the civil war, before bringing its fighters back to Lebanon over the last year to fight in a bruising war with Israel - a redeployment that weakened Syrian government lines.