Pakistan and Iran have agreed to keep their shared border crossings open 24 hours a day to boost bilateral trade, following a meeting in Islamabad between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and a six-member Iranian delegation led by Industry Minister Mohammad Atabak. The two sides also agreed to improve logistics, harmonise customs procedures, and deepen cooperation in the mining sector, with both countries reiterating a shared target of reaching $10 billion in bilateral trade. The move builds on a series of measures introduced since March to facilitate cross-border commerce, including the formalisation of the Taftan border post (a key crossing on the Pakistan-Iran frontier in Balochistan) as a customs station and the opening of new transit routes through the Pakistani ports of Gwadar and Karachi, amid broader economic pressures stemming from the ongoing US-Iran tensions in the region.