TEHRAN: PMO deputy head said reception of Qatari vessels in Iranian ports can help develop the country’s transshipment industry. Deputy Managing Director for Port Affairs of the Ports and Maritime Organization (PMO) Jalil Eslami touched upon impacts of the cut in Qatar’s diplomatic, economic and border ties with its Arab neighbors asserting and some other countries in the region on the Iranian maritime and port industry asserting “it is too soon to evaluate the impacts especially that maritime and port industry is a time-consuming one and the impacts it received can be observed only through course of time.” PMO’s deputy director stressed that it was too early to discuss port and offshore interactions of Qatar with its neighbors; “time needs to pass before we get informed about any change in the path of Qatari vessels from UAE and Bahrain waters towards Iran.” “So far, no request has been received from the Qatari side for mooring of its vessels in Iranian waters,” highlighted the official noting that Iran will welcome any such request since it would benefit southern ports of Iran.
“Iranian ports can gain a good amount of income out of transshipment industry reiterating that Qatari vessels normally carry large volumes of goods and due to the limited capacity of the Arab country’s ports, these ships would also use ports of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. Now with imposition of ban on flag carriers of Qatar, they need to use Iranian ports for loading and unloading or transshipment of goods before carrying them to Qatari ports through feeder ships.“Imam Khomeini, Rajaei and Boushehr are modern and developed ports of Iran and are ready to host Qatari vessels,” noted the official underlining that Iranian oil terminals could also help with Qatar’s import and export of petroleum products.”
