KABUL (Pajhwok): Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman says reports that Iran would hand over 110 hectares of land to Afghanistan stemmed from a misunderstanding, clarifying that the proposal concerns allocating land at Chabahar Port for Afghan investment and trade.
Mohsen Zanganeh, head of the Iranian parliament’s Special Commission for Supporting Production, said in an interview with Sahar TV last Thursday that, under a preliminary understanding, around 10 hectares of coastal land at Chabahar Port and more than 100 hectares in the port’s special economic zone would be allocated to Afghanistan.
He said an agreement had been reached with Islamic Emirate officials for Afghanistan to have “a territory of its own” in the Chabahar Free Zone.
However, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said at a press conference on Monday that the reports resulted from a misunderstanding of remarks made by a member of parliament.
According to Iran’s ISNA news agency, Baghaei said: “There was clearly a misunderstanding arising from the remarks of one of the honourable members of parliament. It is quite clear that transferring territory and land is not possible.”
He added that leasing land to countries without access to open waters was common practice in various parts of the world, and that Iran also benefited from such arrangements.
Baghaei said the initiative aimed to expand trade between countries and provide landlocked nations with access to ports and open waters, enabling them to increase commercial exchanges.
He said the proposal concerning Afghanistan had not been formally raised. Instead, it had been discussed on the sidelines of an official meeting during a visit by an Iranian minister to Afghanistan. Iranian officials had said they would consider the proposal, he added.
Baghaei stressed that claims about transferring Iranian territory to Afghanistan had no basis.
Meanwhile, Iran’s IRNA news agency reported that Zanganeh had also said four days earlier that the proposal involved allocating land at Chabahar Port for Afghan investment and did not mean transferring Iranian territory or sovereignty.
sa
