Baku, Azerbaijan, September 12
By Khalid Kazimov -- Trend:
The Iran World Trade Center (IWTC) has severely criticized Iranian Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh for an unfriendly political turnabout in calling the center legally non-existent.
Mohammad Reza Sabzalipour, head of the IWTC, told Trend Sept. 12 that it is a pity that the minister has made such a claim despite many well-founded documents testifying to the legal recognition of the organization.
The ministry's move followed an announcement by the IWTC saying it was gathering a trade delegation from numerous companies in Iran to travel to New York, USA soon.
In an announcement published on Iranian news websites, the Trade Promotion Organization, an affiliate of the ministry, said the IWTC is an illegal organization and its act in forming a trade delegation is legally forbidden.
Sabzalipour in return said he was awestruck with the minister's action in announcing the organization void, whereas he had sought an IWTC affirmative viewpoint to secure his ascendancy to the post of ministry two years earlier when President Hassan Rouhani was proposing his ministers to the Parliament.
Sabzalipour also denounced the minister for his remarks last week when, in response to a public campaign against buying low-quality Iranian-made automobiles, he had accused the campaigners of running schemes against the sovereignty of the Islamic Republic.
"I would have to say to Mr. Rouhani that I feel sorry for the Government of Hope and Insight whose officials do not tolerate the least amount of criticism and would do anything to gratify their desires, be it rejecting a friend or an organization with nearly three decades of activity on record," Sabzalipour said.
"Do you mean to say that the country's governmental, investigative, security, and judicial organizations have been totally unaware that the center has been up and running all these 24 years?... We do not want to have anything to do with a minister who insults the Iranian nation. Do you mean to forcefully drag us to you and make us accomplice in your mismanagements and sins?"
He further noted that his organization is affiliate to the World Trade Center headquartered in New York and has been so for many years, testified by having paid an annual membership fee.
He also pointed out that numerous cases of governmental correspondence with the IWTC as well as an MoU between the government and the IWTC testify that the Iranian government has so far recognized the IWTC.