Iran launched its first-ever direct railway connection to China in May, the country’s first rail link to Asia that does not rely on transshipment through seaports or Russia, significantly improving its national security by reducing exports vulnerability to the US navy’s threat to seaborne cargo.

Following the quiet inauguration of Iran’s first direct railway link to China, analysts have suggested it may have sparked off the military escalation that erupted following Israel’s attack on Iran on June 12.

The rail link is a significant milestone in Tehran’s efforts to expand trade and infrastructure links across Eurasia. The inaugural train departed from Tehran in May, travelling more than 5,300 km to the Chinese city of Xi’an in just over 14 days, Iranian state media reported.

The route, which crosses Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan before entering western China, forms part of the broader China-Central Asia-West Asia corridor under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Iranian officials described the opening as a “breakthrough”, as it will reduce transport costs and delivery times for goods traded between the two countries. The overland journey is significantly shorter than traditional maritime routes via the Strait of Malacca and the Suez Canal. The route also effectively bypasses the US sanctions on Iran and also provides China better overland access to the Middle East.

“The launch of this corridor is a major step forward in diversifying Iran’s trade routes and strengthening its position in regional transit,” said Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mehrdad Bazrpash.

The rail link is expected to allow the direct delivery of Iranian bulk goods like petrochemicals, agricultural products and construction materials, while facilitating the import of Chinese electronics, machinery and consumer goods.

Iran has invested heavily in recent years to expand its rail infrastructure, which comes in the context of other developing overland links, including the Middle Corridor. There was also a new railway link between China and Kazakhstan that opened in November 2023, the Ayagoz-Tacheng railway connection that is also part of the BRI. The new railway line connects Tacheng in China's western Xinjiang region with Ayagoz in eastern Kazakhstan. It is the third rail border crossing between the two countries, alongside the Alashankou-Dostyk and Khorgos-Altynkol corridors.

In addition, a China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan link is under development that will connect Kashgar (China) through Torugart (Kyrgyzstan) to Andijan (Uzbekistan). Still at the memorandum stage, China and Tajikistan are discussing creating a railway link through the Kulma Pass that would be Tajikistan’s first direct rail connection with China.

War incentive

The Iranian freight route, which connects the central Chinese city of Xi’an to the Aprin dry port nearby, is Iran’s first direct rail corridor to China, but the project has also been described as a strategic rupture that the West is keen to stymie.

Within days of the line becoming operational, the United States and Israel launched a series of high-intensity airstrikes on Iranian infrastructure, officially aimed at halting the country’s nuclear programme, but the railway was also targeted.

Within a week Iran’s parliament voted to close the Straits of Hormuz that analysts said would be a self-inflicted wound, as Iran’s budget depends heavily on oil exports, most of which go to China. The railway provides an alternative export link to China to keep the money flowing even if shipping via the Straits is closed down.

Reducing overland shipping time to roughly 15 days, the line also circumvents the Western-controlled insurance, logistics and payments architecture that underpins global trade and which have been used to sanction Iran.

The development came at a moment of quiet recalibration in US Iran policy. While maintaining a hawkish stance, Washington under the Trump-led Republican administration was reportedly preparing to lift selected secondary sanctions on Chinese entities buying Iranian crude. In return, those transactions would be routed through US-controlled escrow accounts – offering Tehran limited dollar access, but under American financial supervision.

Iran’s establishment of a direct railway to China may have pre-empted or undermined this prospective arrangement, say analysts. The corridor provides a structural mechanism for China and Iran to deepen economic ties beyond the reach of US oversight at a time when the White House is seeking to increase its control over Iran’s oil export revenues.

More generally, the rail link is part of Tehran’s wider policy to reduce US leverage over Iran and anchor itself within the emerging Sino-Russian Eurasian system that is part of Moscow and Beijing’s attempt to build a multipolar world order.

“The war that followed was, in substance, a contest over supply chains, currency hegemony and strategic connectivity,” the report said. “Iran sought to reorder the terms of its global integration.”