ANKARA: Turkiye and Saudi Arabia aim to build a railway to link the two countries with Jordan and Syria in the next three or four years, Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloglu said on Sunday, adding other Gulf countries would also join the project.
Speaking to Al Jazeera, Uraloglu said the railway would help alleviate in future the problems that have arisen from the disruption of the Strait of Hormuz caused by the war in Iran.
The project is described in a memorandum of understanding signed between Ankara and Riyadh last week on logistics cooperation and the railway sector.
In the initial phase, a rail link would allow for the transport of goods, oil, natural gas and people between Saudi Arabia, Turkiye, Jordan, Syria and Europe, Uraloglu said, adding that the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, and possibly Yemen would be included later too.
“A train leaving from Saudi Arabia, from Riyadh already reaches several regions of Saudi Arabia. So this is a project for it to reach Turkey via Jordan and Syria. We are talking about a route that will carry every type of freight via this route to Europe,” Uraloglu was cited as saying.
He said the route from Saudi Arabia to Jordan’s border had been finished and on the Turkish side, the link was completed from Islahiye to Kilis and Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey, near the border with Syria.
That leaves a gap of some 400 km (248.55 miles) between Syria and Jordan, he said.
In addition to commercial trade, Uraloglu said the railway could also be used by people on the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage.
Turkey, which neighbours Syria, has built close ties with the government in Damascus after the fall of President Bashar al-Assad at the end of 2024 and has said it will help the country rebuild.
Uraloglu told Al Jazeera a financial plan would be drawn up for the rail project. The investment would include some $100 million to rebuild the route between Turkiye and Syria’s Aleppo, creating a direct link to Damascus.
Comments