Iran President Rouhani calls for Middle East dialogue

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that Middle Eastern countries should solve their problems together without relying on external powers. "We believe that if there is a problem in the region, it can be solved through dialogue," Rouhani said in a speech at the opening of a port in the southeastern city of Chabahar, broadcast by state television. "We do not need arms nor the intervention of foreign powers. We can solve our problems ourselves through unity and dialogue." Rouhani's comments follow an escalation in the bitter rivalry between Shiite-ruled Iran and Saudi Arabia's Sunni monarchy. The two powers back opposing groups throughout the region -- notably in Syria and Yemen -- and Saudi leaders have lately stepped up efforts to counter Iran's growing influence, raising fears of further conflict. But Rouhani said recent victories against the Islamic State group opened the way for the Middle East to move past its reputation for "war and conflict between Shiite and Sunni... and the presence and interventions of foreign powers". Saudi Arabia and Iran's critics in the West have accused Tehran of seeking to dominate the region at the expense of its neighbours. Rouhani said: "No country can claim to be the superior power in this region. Just as the superpowers couldn't accomplish that either." A handout picture provided by the office of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on December 3, 2017 shows him, centre, inauguraiting the first phase of Chabahar (Shahid Beheshti) Port in the southern Iranian coastal city of Chabahar AFP

New Indian ocean port

Iran inaugurated a long-awaited new port at Chabahar in the southeast, which it is hoped will be a major new trade hub linking India and Africa with Central Asia. The first three shipments of Indian wheat to Afghanistan were unloaded in the morning, according to the Iranian ports organisation. "Through this port, goods will be delivered to neighbouring countries at cheaper prices and in a shorter time," President Hassan Rouhani said at the port, in a speech carried by the state broadcaster. The project was first conceived in 2003 and has so far cost around $1 billion, with India providing $235 million of the financing as it seeks routes that bypass regional rival Pakistan. The port has been under construction for a decade by Khatam al-Anbia, the giant conglomerate owned by the elite Revolutionary Guards. It can accommodate giant ships up to a dry weight of 120,000 tons, with further stages of development due to expand the port over the next 14 years. "Chabahar will soon become an important commercial hub for Iran," Transport Minister Abbas Akhoundi said at the ceremony. Iran has a broader vision of linking the Indian Ocean port with a railway through Zahedan on the Pakistani border up to Mashhad in the northeast. But the project, aimed at facilitating trade with Afghanistan and Central Asia, has been slow to get off the ground. Rouhani also underlined the importance of Chabahar as Iran's only port outside the Gulf, and therefore outside an area that is often the locus of tensions with the US Navy and Iran's regional rivals.