Iran and Qatar resume maritime trade

DUBAI: Maritime trade between Iran and Qatar has resumed after a roughly five-month suspension, Iran’s commercial attaché in Doha told state media on Sunday.

An interim deal between Tehran and Washington signed last month announced the end of hostilities after a four-month conflict and mandated a return to pre-war maritime traffic in the Gulf, although transit in and out of the Gulf remains contested.

Abbas Abdolkhani said shipping between Iran’s Dayyer port and Qatar’s Al Ruwais port had resumed following coordination between the Iranian embassy in Doha and Qatari authorities.

The two geographically opposite ports mainly cater to regional trade. Dayyer port was hit several times during the war.

In late June, an official from the Trade Promotion Organisation of Iran told state media that Iranian goods were finally being cleared at the United Arab Emirates’ Jebel Ali Port, the largest in the region, pointing to a gradual return of trade between the Gulf’s two sides.