| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Still Plenty of Time for Hot-Rod Racing at Mullahs’ Airport |
| 2004-05-15 |
| Turkish Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Namik Tan said in Ankara on 12 May that the sudden closure of Tehran’s new airport, which the Turkish-led consortium Tepe-Akfen-Vie was contracted to run, could harm business ties with Iran .... The national carrier Iran Air was recently tasked with operating the airport, which remains closed. Tan called the airport deal "one of the most important business projects undertaken by Turkish companies in Iran," and warned that the impasse might harm bilateral "economic ties" .... Meanwhile, Ahmad Tavakkoli, a conservative member-elect to Iran’s next parliament, said on 13 May that "the least we expect of [President Mohammad] Khatami is that he dismiss Ahmad Khorram," the transport minister tasked with the airport project, ISNA reported the same day. He said no minister should remain in office "for even an hour" when faced with "such an embarrassing disaster." |
| Posted by:Mike Sylwester |
| #2 It's interesting to watch the various types of spin being deployed on this fiasco. The early story (commented on in RB last week) was that the original engineering firm overseeing the effort "quit" at the end of the Iran-Iraq war in 1988 and the effort was "awarded" to an Islamic charity. The net result was a flurry of changed specifications, runways built from asphalt instead of concrete, faulty wiring, faulty flight control systems, etc. leading to an inability to get the airport certified for international service, cost overruns, missing money, political corruption, etc. The last story was that the mullahs' enforcers shut it down because they were "shocked" to discover that the Turkish company had "Zionist partners." Basically just another story of Islamic greed, graft, and incompetence being blamed on the Jews. This civilization peaked with the fall of Constantinople in 1453. |
| Posted by: RWV 2004-05-15 9:55:48 AM |
| #1 An Iranian Big Dig. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2004-05-15 4:04:42 AM |