Iraq hopes to complete its first railway link with neighboring Iran within 18 months, largely to help facilitate the transport of millions of pilgrims that visit Shi'ite Muslim shrines in Iraq each year, a senior transport adviser said.
The roughly 30-kilometer (18.64 miles) line will run between Iraq's southern city of Basra and the Iranian border-town of Shalamja, linking nations with ties that have deepened since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, after which pro-Tehran Shi'ite Muslim parties enhanced their influence in Baghdad.
(Reuters)