Iran's neighbours refuse to close borders despite US pressure

Washington has spent weeks pressing Turkey, Iraq and Pakistan to close their border crossings with Iran. All three have refused, according to a New York Times report citing three Iraqi officials and a US official, stalling the campaign to cripple the Iranian economy through pressure rather than force.

The refusal lands on the Pentagon's newest instrument. Task Force Iron Gate, a Central Command unit created to stop weapons, sanctioned goods and illicit revenue from crossing Iran's land borders and the Caspian Sea, now has no partners at the gates it is meant to police. Turkey has largely kept its border policies unchanged. Baghdad rejected the American proposal to leave only two crossings open — it briefly sealed one or two as a concession, which angered Iraqis. Pakistan has closed and reopened several crossings in recent weeks, citing security and administrative reasons, while $3 billion in annual trade with Iran moves through the rest.

The neighbours' calculation is arithmetic. Iraq draws more than a third of the gas that powers its electricity network from Iran. Pakistan depends heavily on Iranian fuel shipments, above all liquefied petroleum gas. Governments in the region warned Washington that severing trade routes on which communities on both sides of the frontier depend could provoke "civil insurrection," in the words of one US official — the same official who told the Times the pressure campaign has stirred growing anger toward Washington among its allies and partners. Ellie Geranmayeh of the European Council on Foreign Relations says Iran retains considerable economic leverage over its neighbours. The blockade's costs are billed locally; its benefits are booked in Washington.

Tehran is meanwhile organising its countermove through Moscow. Iran's deputy foreign minister met the Russian ambassador to discuss countering what Tehran calls "the so-called Iron Gate plan," and on November 5 Vladimir Putin hosted Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, at the Kremlin. The two agreed to build pipelines carrying Russian gas to Iran, allowing Tehran to cover domestic demand and resell gas to neighbouring states — a Russian offer to replace the very supply Iraq and Pakistan would lose if they ever complied. Rezaei says Iran will not reopen the Strait of Hormuz or negotiate until Washington meets seven conditions, among them an end to hostilities across the region, the lifting of the naval blockade and sanctions, and the release of frozen assets.

The naval blockade holds at sea. On land, it rests on Baghdad volunteering to give up the gas behind more than a third of Iraq's electricity.