Seyyed Rouhollah Latifi made the announcement on Tuesday, saying that Iraq’s Prime Minister Mostafa al-Kadhimi has agreed to a limited reopening of borders in Mandali in Diyala province and the Shalamcheh border in Basra province.

He added that according to the Iraqi officials, the reopening of the two borders will be two days a week and 250 trucks of Iranian export cargo can pass via each border every day.

Iraqi officials have emphasized the strict implementation of health protocols and meeting the needs of the two Iraqi provinces, Latifi said.

Due to the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iraq, Shalamcheh border crossing and other borders in the central government as well as the borders of the Iraqi Kurdistan region had been closed.

Shalamcheh International Border is 15 km away from Khorramshahr and 20 km from Basra, Iraq, and is the most prominent border crossing point in Khuzestan province for trading transactions.

Soomar border is located in Kermanshah province and it was also closed for more than four months due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the governor of Ghasr-e-Shirin Moradali Tatar, exports and imports of goods besides other trade activities have been resumed at the named joint borders, while quarantine sectors have been established in both Iraqi and Iranian sides.

“Presently, 500 trucks of goods are daily exported from Iran via Khosravi borders, while 800 to 1,500 trucks export goods through Parvizkhan to Iraq per day,” the official informed.

On February 25, Iranian Road Minister Mohammad Eslami announced that Iran’s health ministry is negotiating with neighboring countries to reopen land borders on Iran’s freight forwarders.

Concerning the closure of the land borders of the neighboring countries on the Iranian freight forwarders, Eslami said, “The country’s land borders are mainly export-oriented and basic commodities are not crossed over them.”

“Some groups from Iran’s health ministry are now consulting with officials of neighboring countries and concluding protocols on common borders with them to resume export across the land borders,” he added.

In recent days, dozens of cases of coronavirus have been reported in Iran. In this regard, some countries, including Turkey, Armenia, Afghanistan, and Turkmenistan closed their borders with Iran and implemented a number of other measures to prevent the disease from appearing in their countries.

Among these countries, the office of Afghanistan’s National Security Council announced on Tuesday the reopening of the country’s borders with Iran after a temporary closure.

He made the remarks on Monday in a meeting with the Head of Arbaeen Headquarters Zolfaghari and Governor General of Ilam province Ghasem Dashtaki.

This year, “we witnessed considerable growth in the number of Arbaeen pilgrims in four Iran-Iraq borders crossings of the country [including Mehran, Chazabeh, Shalamcheh and Khosravi]. More than 60 percent of pilgrims passed through Mehran border crossing,” he added.

The Arbaeen Pilgrimage is the world’s largest annual public gathering that is held every year in Karbala, Iraq at the end of the 40-day mourning period following Ashura, the religious ritual for the commemoration of martyrdom of the grandson of Prophet Mohammad and the third Shia Imam in 680.