Ilam, Sept 16, IRNA -- About 1,200 Iraqi pilgrims are arriving in the Islamic Republic on a daily basis via the international border point of Mehran in this western province, said a local official Thursday.

Mehran's Governor Hojjat Esmaeili said that Iraqis who were willing to go on pilgrimage visits to the Iranian holy cities of Mashhad in the northeastern province of Khorassan Razavi and Qom in the central province of Qom used to have permissions from officials of the two countries.

As the situation has been relatively calm in the Iraqi holy cities, said the governor, more Iranians are rushing to the Mehran border point to cross the border and make pilgrimage visits to the Iraqi holy shrines.

Mehran has been one of the most important border points during the past 18 months used by many Iranian and Iraqi nationals to visit the holy cities of each country. Some 3.5 million of Iranian and Iraqi nationals have passed the Iran-Iraq border via Mehran in the said period, the governor concluded.

... Payvand News - 9/16/04 ... --