Official: Afghanistan keen on development of Chabahar port

In a meeting with the governor general of Khorasan Razavi Province, Popal said that in his recent visit to Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, he was stunned by the development of the infrastructures in Chabahar, IRNA reported.
He said he hoped the infrastructure would benefit Afghanistan traders.
Given the significant number of Afghan investors in Iran, he called for more measures to ease the procedure of issuing visas and residence permits for them in Chabahar and other free economic zones in Iran.
The Afghan official also said that he had signed a protocol on cooperation of customs offices.
He also suggested that Iran and Afghanistan can cooperate on the reduction of tariffs on the transit of goods, adding that he had discussed the issue with officials at the Afghan Ministry of Transport.
The Governor General of Razavi Khorasan Province, Alireza Razm-Hosseini, said that some 3.5 million Afghans are in Iran and the province is facing some 1,500 illegal Afghan immigrants.
Illicit drug trafficking from Afghanistan to Iran is another challenge that has claimed the lives of thousands of Iranian policemen and border guards, he said, calling on the Afghan government to take appropriate measures.
“Lack of control over the Afghan border has caused insecurity due to the phenomenon of illicit drug trafficking in border areas,” he said.
Iran shares a 950-kilometer border with Afghanistan.