Pakistan Allows Limited Cargo Flow at Iran Border After Nine-Day Halt

On October 17, Islamabad suspended all cargo traffic through the Gabd-Rimdan and Taftan border crossings in Balochistan province. The halt lasted nine days, disrupting the flow of hundreds of daily freight vehicles that normally move goods and people between the two neighbors. On Monday, some goods started to move again, marking a partial resumption of trade.

Mir Naveed Jan Kalmati, president of the Gwadar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Al Jazeera that trade “partially resumed this weekend.” Border officials cleared consignments dated from October 16 or earlier, according to goods truck association officials. Haji Noor Muhammad Shahwani, central president of the Balochistan Goods Truck Owners Association, confirmed from Quetta that Pakistani exports such as rice and bananas were crossing the border. He also noted that trucks loaded in Iran before the closure, including those carrying liquefied petroleum gas, were entering Pakistan. “Those that were already loaded are clearing and coming out now. They are coming slowly,” Shahwani said.

The suspension of Iranian LPG imports created severe shortages and price spikes in Pakistan, a country that imports the bulk of its energy from the Middle East. The economic strain coincided with disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz caused by the war between Iran and the United States and Israel. Rizwan Ahmed, a customs clearing agent near Gabd-Rimdan, said customs instructed agents to file declarations for stranded trucks to release them. “Customs has given us the go-ahead, saying, ‘Bring in as much cargo as you can,’” Ahmed told Al Jazeera. He did not specify if this applied to goods loaded after October 16. Ahmed stated his own consignment of rice, retail goods, potatoes, and bananas had just left.

Iran disputes the narrative that the border is fully open. Reza Amiri Moghadam, Iran’s ambassador to Pakistan, wrote on X on Sunday that Iran had placed no restrictions on exports to Pakistan. He argued that changes to Pakistan’s E-Form procedure for imports created a situation where traders were “effectively and literally unable to dispatch cargo from Iran to Pakistan.” A Commerce Ministry memorandum from October 16 withdrew a previous waiver on this E-Form, also known as the EIF, effective immediately. The form records imports and their payment through banks. Moghadam said several hundred LPG trucks had crossed into Gabd but remained unloaded and unclear.

Shahwani said the unloading problem had not been resolved. “It is probably some problem with the banks, something to do with international trade,” he said. On October 18, Bakhtiar Ismail, the deputy commissioner of Chagai in Balochistan, described the closure on social media as a temporary measure to improve border management and support counterterrorism efforts. Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei cited technical issues, according to the IRNA news agency.

Gunmen attacked trucks waiting near Gabd on Thursday, prompting the military to launch operations around Gabd and Gwadar city. The military reported that 10 attackers were killed and one civilian died. Balochistan accounted for 131 of the 225 armed attacks recorded nationwide in September, the highest monthly national total in 12 years, according to the Pakistan Institute for Conflict and Security Studies. The province has faced a separatist rebellion for decades.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs addressed the border at its Friday news briefing. Spokesman Sajjad Haider Khan said Pakistan adheres to applicable sanctions regimes in accordance with international and domestic laws. He said he did not have direct knowledge of the situation on the ground and did not state whether the United States pressured Pakistan over the closure. The Ministry of Commerce did not respond to a request for comment. Imtiaz Baloch, a security analyst focusing on Balochistan, told Al Jazeera that US maximum pressure policies on Iran had a direct or indirect influence on the closure. “My assessment is that security is part of it, procedures or technical glitches are part of it and the banking system is also involved,” Baloch said.