US blockade pushes Iran's trade onto land routes now gridlocked with trucks

Iran sought to bypass the US naval blockade of its ports by shifting trade to overland routes, which are now clogged with thousands of stranded trucks and delayed cargo.

• Hundreds of Iranian truck drivers are stuck at the Pakistan border, with similar congestion reported at crossings with Turkey, Turkmenistan and Afghanistan.
• Iran's US-sanctioned airline Mahan Air announced Wednesday it is suspending flights to Oman and Turkey.
• Ehsan Malek Zadeh, head of Iran's International Transport Companies Association, said 3,700 trucks are stranded on the Iranian side of the Turkish border, with waits of up to 20 days.
• Iraq temporarily closed its border crossings with Iran, forcing trucks carrying Iranian onions to turn back on Sunday.
• Ship-tracking data on Thursday showed cargo ship transits through the Strait of Hormuz fell to 3 on Wednesday, from 12 the previous day.
• The 3 crossings compared with a 10-day average of about 17 ships, though vessels may have crossed with transponders off, Reuters said.