Tehran, Iran, June 14
By Mehdi Sepahvand - Trend:
Iran sent its Mesbah satellite to Italy to be launched, but Italy has neither launched the satellite nor gives it back, says Mahdinejad Nouri, a senior official at General Staff of Iran's Armed Forces.
In the same manner, the Sina satellite was given for launch to Russians, but its fate is unclear, he told Tasnim June 14.
It seems Iran is the victim of some "unwritten sanctions" here, he concluded.
Iran says Mesbah was a scientific satellite designed as part of a series of researches.
Mohsen Bahrami, head of Iran Space Organization, said early May that the country was planning to build new satellites dubbed "Mesbah 2" and "Nahid".
The Mesbah satellite weighs 75 kilograms and is designed to circle the Earth 14 times a day.
Neither Mesbah nor Sina was ever launched as both Russia and Italy refused to cooperate with Iran on space projects.
Mesbah cost Iran about 100 trillion rials (about $4 million) to be built.