<\/p>\n
FILE.- Afghan women care for their children in the malnutrition ward at Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, Feb. 15, 2026.<\/p>\n
Siddiqullah Alizai\/AP Photo\/Siddiqullah Alizai<\/p>\n
A general view of a road commonly used by cargo trucks entering eastern Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
Siddiqullah Alizai\/AP Photo\/Siddiqullah Alizai<\/p>\n
Vendors sell potatoes at their stall in a street market in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, May 14, 2026.<\/p>\n
Siddiqullah Alizai\/AP Photo\/Siddiqullah Alizai<\/p>\n
Supply trucks are parked inside the Kabul Customs yard in Kabul, Afghanistan, Sunday, May 17, 2026.<\/p>\n
Siddiqullah Alizai\/AP Photo\/Siddiqullah Alizai<\/p>\n
Mohammad Murtaza Ishaqzai, sells electronics in his shop in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
Siddiqullah Alizai\/AP Photo\/Siddiqullah Alizai<\/p>\n
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) \u2014 When landlocked Afghanistan and neighboring Pakistan started fighting late last year and their border crossings closed, Afghans turned to their western neighbor, Iran, for an alternate to Pakistan\u2019s major shipping hub of Karachi.<\/p>\n
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They rerouted shipments through Iran’s port of Bandar Abbas, but not for long. The port lies on the Strait of Hormuz, where war has stranded hundreds of ships and thousands of their crew. Meanwhile, thousands of Afghanistan-bound containers were stuck in Pakistan.<\/p>\n
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For Afghan businesses and aid groups, losing both trade routes has been devastating.<\/p>\n
Malnourished women and children turned away<\/p>\n
The United Nations\u2019 World Food Program, whose Afghan operations include life-saving nutritional supplements for malnourished mothers and children and fortified high-energy biscuits for schoolchildren, has seen transportation costs skyrocket and supplies choked off.<\/p>\n
Most of WFP\u2019s nutrition supplies were sourced from Pakistan, the organization said. After that border closed in October, it began rerouting shipments by sea through Dubai and Iran. Now that route is effectively closed as Tehran controls the strait and the U.S. blockades Iranian ports.<\/p>\n
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The nutritional supplements began to dwindle. By mid-April, they had run out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt a time when malnutrition is already at near-record levels, weakened and desperate mothers and children are being turned away from health clinics, as we have no food to give them,\u201d said John Aylieff, WFP\u2019s country director in Afghanistan.<\/p>\n
Even before the crisis, the organization had struggled with aid cuts. It has received only 8% of its annual funding this year.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOn top of a funding crisis, conflict in the Middle East and the closure of the border with Pakistan are choking WFP\u2019s operations \u2014 blocking supply routes, driving up costs and straining markets at the worst possible time,\u201d Aylieff said in emailed comments.<\/p>\n
A shipment on the road for three months<\/p>\n
Now supplies must be routed by land through Central Asia, far from any ocean. WFP\u2019s transportation costs have tripled, while its cost of supplements for malnourished mothers and children has jumped by 35%, Aylieff said.<\/p>\n
The outbreak of the Iran war in late February saw one of the organization\u2019s shipments of high-energy fortified biscuits stuck in the United Arab Emirates.<\/p>\n
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Instead of being shipped from Dubai to Iran and into Afghanistan, it has been taking a long, circuitous route through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, Turkey, Georgia, Azerbaijan and across the Caspian Sea into Turkmenistan, the organization said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been on the road for three months.<\/p>\n
Afghan businessmen struggle with stuck shipments<\/p>\n
Lutfullah Akbari runs a small company in Kabul importing construction equipment. With his supplies from China stuck on ships unable to transit the Strait of Hormuz and costs for the logistics company transporting them rising, \u201cI have nothing else to use to continue my business here,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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He\u2019s now considering abandoning his cargo if the waterway doesn\u2019t reopen soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Iran-U.S. war has had a huge impact on my business,\u201d he said. Other traders have rerouted shipments through Central Asia, but it’s longer and more expensive.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe logistics company now wants more than the value of our goods and the capital we had invested in them. We can\u2019t afford it,\u201d Akbari said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if I bring them here, I\u2019ll have to sell them all at a loss. I can\u2019t afford to lose twice.\u201d<\/p>\n
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The cost of one delivery shot up 10 times<\/p>\n
Gul Meer Amini, director of logistics at freight company Etifaq Bamyan International Transport and Trade Forwarding, said the Iran war has dramatically increased costs. Some of the cargo his company handles includes humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n
Before the war, the cost of renting a container was about $3,000 to $3,600 per shipment but it has now surged to over $7,000. For some goods, it has topped $11,000, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe impact is reaching all traders,\u201d Amini said.<\/p>\n
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Mohammad Murtaza Ishaqzai, who sells electronics in Kabul, said delivery for his goods from China via Iran cost about $1,100 to $1,500 before the war. That\u2019s now shot up to more than $15,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t export and we can\u2019t import,\u201d he said, and appealed to the Taliban government to resolve its conflict with Pakistan, which would allow border trade to resume.<\/p>\n
If the situation continues, he said, \u201cour business will be finished.\u201d<\/p>\n
Majority of trade is now through Central Asia<\/p>\n
Afghanistan’s Commerce and Trade Ministry spokesperson Abdul Salam Jawad said overall price increases in the country had remained low, at around 3%, thanks to continued trade with Iran and the sourcing of many imports from Central Asia, Russia and China.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe problem we faced was the restrictions on our imported goods and containers coming from other countries\u201d via Iran, he said. \u201cWe are waiting for a solution to be found in the Strait of Hormuz so that we can export normally.”<\/p>\n
Khan Jan Alokozai, senior adviser to Afghanistan\u2019s Chamber of Commerce and Investment, said more than 60% of Afghanistan\u2019s trade is now through Central Asia, mitigating the Iran war\u2019s overall impact.<\/p>\n
Food and petroleum products are coming in through Central Asia and Russia, while much trade is now being conducted via Turkey, with goods then transported by rail through Iran or Azerbaijan, Alokozai said.<\/p>\n
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Becatoros reported from Athens, Greece.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE.- Afghan women care for their children in the malnutrition ward at Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Kabul,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":130048,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[28],"tags":[799,43614,102,34,43616,43617,43615,3284,3285,650,3282,34908,101],"class_list":["post-130047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-strait-of-hormuz","tag-afghanistan","tag-afghanistan-iran-war-hormuz-supplies","tag-hormuz","tag-iran","tag-jan-alokozai","tag-john-aylieff","tag-mohammad-murtaza-ishaqzai","tag-package-100024-ap-online","tag-package-100373-mc-complete-state-national","tag-pakistan","tag-product-30598-ap-national-news-report-a-wire","tag-product-31997-ap-online-asia-news","tag-strait-of-hormuz"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116634877009842260","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130048"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}