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The Birjand ophiolite is one of the ophiolitic complexes in the northern Sistan suture zone, eastern Iran, which marks the closure of an enigmatic branch of the Neotethys Ocean (called the Sistan Ocean) associated with the collision between the Lut and Afghan continental blocks. Ophiolitic rocks in the suture zone occur as collisional block-to-block geological terranes, or as blocks within tectonic mélange. We present zircon U–Pb age, and whole-rock geochemical and Sr–Nd isotopic data of the Birjand ophiolite to understand its formation age and magma genesis in this poorly constrained part of the Alpine–Himalayan orogenic belt. Varieties of the ophiolitic rocks include clinopyroxene-bearing harzburgites, harzburgites, dunites, massive and pillow basalts, dolerites, gabbros and leucogabbros. Using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry, zircon separates from two leucogabbros yield U–Pb …