Turkey to complete Iran border wall by spring 2019

Turkey has completed more than half of a 144 km wall on its border with Iran to prevent smuggling, illegal immigration and infiltration from militants, a Turkish developer said on Wednesday.

President Tayyip Erdogan said last year that Turkey would build walls along its border with Iraq and part of the border with Iran similar to the nearly completed one on its longest border with Syria.

State housing developer TOKI said the wall along the Iranian border with Turkey will be completed by next spring.

"We started this (Iran wall) in the summer, but the season is very short here. Currently, 80 km of this 144 km has been completed, and when seasonal weather conditions permit, God willing, we will have finished by next spring," TOKI President Ergun Turan told Reuters.

Turkish officials have said the border wall aims to prevent infiltration from Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants.

TOKI has also been building a wall on the border with northern Syria where Kurdish fighters and hardl-line Sunni militants control territory.

Since construction of the wall along Syria's border militants from IS and other groups have attempted to use alternative smuggling routes via Iran into Turkey.