Pakistan and Iran inaugurated a second official border crossing Dec. 19 at the strategically located crossing point of Gwadar-Ramdhan. Situated in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, which lies adjacent to Pakistan’s Baluchistan province, this new gateway is now the shortest land route connecting the port of Gwadar to Iran. The idea for a second border crossing had recently been suggested by Iran. On his fourth visit to Pakistan since the Imran Khan government assumed power, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif came to Islamabad in November. During meetings with the Pakistani leadership, the proposed land crossing remained at the top of the agenda. 

Alongside the continued development of its huge West Karoun oil fields, the completion of the supergiant South Pars non-associated gas offshore sector (including the implementation of Phase 11 operations), and the finalisation of the crude oil transfer pipeline from Guriyeh to Jask, Iran’s core focus in the current sanctions environment is to optimise the output and revenues from its already world-scale petrochemicals sector. This has always played a key role in Iran’s ‘resistance economy’ model - the concept of generating value-added returns by leveraging intellectual capital into business development wherever possible. In the last week or so, Iran has launched another three major petchems projects and discussed further co-operation with Russia in the sector.

A visit by Qatari Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani to Iran's capital city of Tehran is a milestone, which helped Doha and Tehran to enhance relations in 2020. […] Iran has good relations with Qatar, and Tehran has taken friendly stances when the Qatari people and government were grappling with oppressive siege by some littoral states of the Persian Gulf; so, Doha is grateful for the Iranians' support, Al-Qahtani stated. In 2020, the two friendly countries also held the seventh joint economic commission in Isfahan, Iran, in order to expand bilateral trade ties.

The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said in mid-October that Moscow will consider military technical cooperation with Iran in line with mutual interests after the expiration of a United Nations arms embargo on Tehran. “We are convinced that all possibilities stemming from the expiration of the provisions of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231 that are linked with military technical cooperation with Iran will be duly taken into account and used on the basis of mutual benefit and in the interests of the peoples of our two states,” Maria Zakharova said. […] Elsewhere in his interview, Jalali said the US must compensate Iran for losses due to its sanctions if it wants to returns to the nuclear deal with world powers. […] The Iranian ambassador also noted that the Islamic Republic seeks to boost cooperation with Russia in the production of the coronavirus vaccine while negotiations have been held over the issue in the recent months.