IRNA, Iran’s news agency, reports that Iran, despite its nuclearization policies, is now getting new support from three different directions: The Islamic Development Bank, the South Korean government and the Turkish government.

The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) on Saturday agreed to grant a 19-million-euro credit to Iran’s Shahid Bahonar Copper Industries Company.

The IDB will give the credit to the company within frameworks of the Import Trade Financing Operations (ITFO) to buy primary materials for making metal alloys.

The head of Iran’s organization of investment, and economic-technical aid, Mohammad Khazaei, and Head of “The South Korean agency for encouragement of investment and trade,” Ki-Hwa Hong, in a meeting on Saturday signed a memorandum of understanding on formation of a joint investment committee.

The first joint investment committee meeting will be held in the South Korean capital of Seoul in October this year.

Concerning Iran’s capacities and potentials in the economic field, Khazaei said that the present level of bilateral economic relations is favorable, but insufficient. “At present, Iran-South Korea economic relations are restricted to trade. However, given Iran’s human and economic potentials and its efficient manpower, the two countries should attempt to base their economic ties on investment and production,” the Iranian official told IRNA.

For his part, Hong referred to investment of dozens of billions of dollars by South Korean companies in other states and declared his country’s readiness to assess the capacities and investment opportunities in Iran.

He pointed to the mutually inked agreement on formation of Iran-South Korea investment committee as a significant measure toward expansion of economic exchanges between the two sides and joint investment.

Meanwhile, Iranian Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs Davoud Danesh Jaafari and his Turkish counterpart Kemal Unakitan in a meeting on Saturday discussed expansion of mutual relations.

The meeting, which was held on the sidelines of the second ECO finance ministers meeting in Antalia, was also attended by Iranian Ambassador to Turkey Gholam-Reza Baqeri Moqaddam, Danesh Jaafari’s entourage as well as Iranian and Turkish reporters.

The Iranian minister, heading an economic delegation, arrived in Antalia on Friday to attend the second ECO ministerial meeting.

The second ECO finance ministers meeting opened in the Turkish city of Antalia on Friday afternoon with the inaugural speech of Unakitan and ended late Friday night by issuing an statement.

Welcoming Danesh Jaafari and his accompanying delegation, the Turkish finance minister declared that “Given that Iran and Turkey are two powerful regional countries enjoying great potentials, Turkey is willing to expand its relations with Iran in all fields.”

For his part, Danesh Jaafari thanked Turkey’s hospitality during the ECO ministerial meeting and said that Iran is also interested in bolstering mutual ties.

It would seem that Iran is anything but isolated on the world stage.

David Bedein can be reached at Media@actcom.co.il. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com.

©The Bulletin 2007

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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