Baghdad: The General Company for Land Transport, affiliated with the Ministry of Transport, announced over 5,000 transit operations through Iraqi territory in the past year and a half. This marks the first time Iraqi trucks have participated in transit operations under the International Transit Agreement (TIR), after previous transit operations within Iraq were conducted by foreign trucks. The Director General of the General Company for Land Transport, Murtadha Al-Shahmani, told the Iraqi News Agency (INA): “The Ministry of Transport, through its specialized departments, has exerted significant efforts to regulate transit operations and has achieved remarkable successes. The number of transit operations through Iraqi territory has exceeded 5,000 since March 2025, all falling under the International Transit Agreement (TIR), established by the International Road Transport Union (IRU), in which more than 79 countries worldwide participate, including Iraq.”

According to Iraqi News Agency, Al-Shahmani explained that “Iraqi trucks carried out transport operations originating from Saudi territory via the Arar border crossing, heading towards Central Asian countries,” emphasizing that “the success of this operation opens promising economic horizons for Iraq and provides an important national resource that the Ministry of Transport is working to develop to achieve the highest levels of benefit for the country.”

He added that “this file is receiving significant attention from the Minister of Transport, Wahab al-Hassani, and is among the ministry’s top priorities, as it aligns with the government program’s objectives aimed at diversifying the country’s resources and maximizing non-oil revenues,” noting that “the ministry has expanded its memoranda of understanding with a number of neighboring countries, including Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Iran, and Turkey, with the aim of integrating Iraq into international supply chain corridors and leveraging its strategic geographical location in this regard.”