Afghanistan's trade associations say they have halted trade with neighbouring Iran to protest against an unexplained fuel blockade which has been choking the Afghan economy, the groups' leaders said on Tuesday. Tensions between the two nations have been rising over a de facto fuel export ban by Iran, but Afghan President Hamid Karzai said on Tuesday he had received an assurance from the Iranian ambassador in Kabul that the issue would be resolved in days.
The ban had stranded nearly 2,000 tankers at the border earlier this week and pushed up fuel prices around Afghanistan. Only around 40 trucks were being allowed across each day. The President of the Afghan Chamber of Commerce, Qurban Haqjo, said thousands of independent traders have agreed to halt trade with Iran to protest the problems caused by the ban. If fully implemented the pact could suspend deals worth millions of dollars, and possibly damage the weak Afghan economy. "It is an independent decision by Afghan traders, and the ban starts from today," Haqjo told a news conference in Kabul, adding that the government should encourage domestic production to fill the gap left by a dearth of Iranian imports.
Later on Tuesday, a statement from President Karzai's office quoted Iranian ambassador Fida Hussain Maliki as saying 929 tankers had entered Afghanistan over the past 25 days and that the backlog would be cleared within the next four days. Iranian news agency ISNA, quoting the Iranian embassy in Kabul, said only 160 fuel tankers were now waiting to cross the border and would do so "in the next few days after legal procedures are carried out." The Afghan Chamber of Commerce last week said it was told by Iranian officials the tankers were delayed because Tehran believed the fuel was destined for US and Nato forces, which are fighting a resilient insurgency.