According to Armenia’s State Revenue Committee (SRC), Iranian officials reported on Wednesday a disruption of automated control systems on the Iranian side of the sole border crossing between the two states. Its reopening allowed more Iranians to flee to the South Caucasus country on the sixth day of the war. The number of refugees remained relatively insignificant.
“It's not safe in Iran as bombs are exploding everywhere,” said one middle-aged woman travelling with her husband and daughter. “That's why we have left the country. I'm from Tehran. Both residential and non-residential areas have been attacked there.”
“Yerevan is our first stop, maybe we'll go to another country or city,” she told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service outside the Armenian checkpoint.
Although the border marked by the Arax river was not officially closed for commercial trucks, the technical problems reported on the Iranian side significantly slowed Armenian-Iranian cargo traffic. That caused a long line of mostly Iranian trucks on an Armenian highway leading to the border crossing.
More than 100 trucks were lined up there on Thursday morning. Their Iranian drivers had left their country before the outbreak of the war.
“We are worried about our cities, our women and children,” said one of them. “America says. ‘Give up your missiles, enriched uranium and nuclear weapons so that we can negotiate. But Iran will never give in to their demands, it will never surrender.”
“We are not in favor of war,” said another trucker. “Many kids are dying, and important places are being hit.”
Between 400 and 450 trucks crossed the border each day earlier this week, according to the Armenian customs service. Iran is a major trading partner of Armenia, with bilateral trading reaching almost $770 million last year. It is also a key transit route for Armenia’s commercial operations with Gulf states, China and other Asian nations.