The Wall Street Journal:
Iran's attempt to circumvent the maritime blockade by shifting trade to land routes has been thwarted.
Hundreds of Iranian trucks encountered long delays at the borders of Pakistan, Turkey, Afghanistan and Turkmenistan, and border and bureaucratic problems disrupted the process of moving goods.
The cost of shipping containers from China to Iran by land is about four times that of shipping by sea, and the Iran-China Chamber of Commerce has rejected the annual increase of about $18 billion in shipping costs.
These disruptions, along with the increase in import costs and the problems of alternative routes, put more pressure on Iran's economy.
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