POLITICS: Tehran Conservatives Pressure Commerce Ministry to Relocate Expo and Conventions Center

July 28, 2004 - Big financial gains may be at stake in Tehran conservative municipal government’s pressure on the reformist commerce ministry to vacate the choice real estate in northern Tehran, which for the past fifty years has been occupied by the permanent international trade fairs and conventions center, a Tehran journalist told Radio Farda’s broadcaster Nima Tamadon on the condition of anonymity. The city council evicted the conventions center from the premises by passing a law which cited traffic congestion as the reason for the eviction. Claiming that he plans to build a women-only park in the city property, Tehran’s conservative mayor Mahmoud Ahmadi-nezhad proclaimed the present motorbike trade show as the center’s last. The planned international pastry and chocolate exhibit and a major carpet exhibit are both looking for new venues, even though the fairs and conventions center’s director has asked interior minister to veto the city council’s legislation.