Who Canceled the Imam Airport Contract; Minister or General?

Hassan Rouhani's remarks about a "minister" preventing a foreign company from investing in the establishment of Imam Airport in Tehran have once again raised the issue of the Revolutionary Guards' obstruction of this airport's operation by the Turkish-Austrian company TAV. Although Rouhani spoke of the opposition of "one minister," which may refer to another incident, the only official report on this matter has been related to TAV's contract. Rouhani, alongside Mohammad Rahmati, the then Minister of Roads and Transportation, during the reopening of Imam Airport in May 2005, stated that when Imam Airport was not yet built and was just "desert," a foreign company proposed to construct all phases within two years and operate it for 10 or 15 years, but "one minister" said that foreign women must wear headscarves in transit lounges and prevented this investment. Rouhani did not mention the name of this minister or the government in question. During Mir Hossein Mousavi's government and the Iran-Iraq war, such proposals to Iran were unlikely, and during Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani's government, Akbar Turkan, Rouhani's current advisor, was the Minister of Roads. It is also unclear why Rouhani's account of the obstruction of Imam Airport's operation is inconsistent with official reports on this matter, as he, in his role as the then Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, must have been aware of the pressures regarding the airport's non-operation and himself attended the reopening ceremony about a year later. The well-known story about Imam Airport, however, is the Revolutionary Guards' prevention of the airport's operation in collaboration with TAV on the day of its inauguration in 2004. At the time of Imam Khomeini Airport's operation, TAV was supposed to complete and prepare the second phase of the airport within two years in exchange for taking over airport services from cargo to handling. However, opposition to the activities of this Turkish-Austrian company began with the CEO of the then Aseman Airlines, a company that sought to take over the cargo or commercial freight services of the new airport. The then CEO, Ali Abedzadeh, a former Revolutionary Guards commander, is currently the head of the Civil Aviation Organization under Rouhani's government, and the refusal to grant this section of airport services to Aseman led the company to refuse to transfer its flights to the newly established Imam Khomeini Airport. From here, for the first time, the claim of TAV's connection to Israel was raised, and it was claimed that the presence of this company at the airport would cause security problems. Following this, the Revolutionary Guards and the General Staff of the Armed Forces intervened in the airport's inauguration issue, and Ahmad Khorram, during days when he moved his office to the airport to expedite the launch, hosted meetings with senior military officials. The only foreign flight that landed at Imam Airport in May 2004 was a flight from Emirates Airlines. However, on the first day of the new airport's operation, only one Emirates flight, albeit delayed, managed to land, and thereafter the Guards prevented other aircraft from taking off and landing by blocking the airport runway. Ahmad Khorram, the then Minister of Roads and Transportation, announced months later in his impeachment session that the Revolutionary Guards had prevented the landing of the first foreign flight by stationing three armed Land Cruisers on the runway and that a MiG-29 had also warned this aircraft. He also mentioned the entry of the Omani Minister of Culture and Guidance for a book fair, stating that the Guards "pulled him out of the restroom and threw him out of the CIP." At the time of this incident, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf was the commander of the police force, and Ahmad Kazemi was the commander of the Air Force of the Revolutionary Guards. However, Ahmad Khorram stated in meetings with students who visited him after his impeachment that Qalibaf was the commander of the operation to prevent the reopening of this airport. The representatives of the seventh parliament, however, were not satisfied with Khorram's dismissal and passed a plan that Iran's contracts with TAV and also with Turkcell for establishing the second mobile operator must be approved by the parliament. Simultaneously with the introduction of this plan, Mohammad Khatami canceled his trip to Turkey. Ultimately, these two companies were not allowed to operate in Iran. Khatami's handling of this incident also drew criticism. Some media reported that Khatami had effectively left Ahmad Khorram, the Minister of Roads, alone against the Revolutionary Guards. On the day of the impeachment, Khatami was also on a foreign trip, and Khorram defended himself alone. Khatami later stated that the President's foreign trips are planned long in advance and that it was not the case that his office had arranged it so that he would not attend the impeachment session. Nevertheless, critics believed that Khatami should have canceled his foreign trip in response to an action that resembled a coup against the government and gone to the parliament, as the prevention of these two contracts with two Turkish companies was a show of power by the Revolutionary Guards and the seventh parliament against Khatami's government. Meanwhile, some also saw the role of economic rivalries in this incident. For instance, in the Turkcell affair, while the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology defended the presence of this company in Iran, Hamid Reza Aref, the son of Mohammad Reza Aref, the then First Vice President, was the intermediary for the presence of the "MTN" company. However, MTN's presence in Iran did not last until Khatami's government, and Hamid Reza Aref stated that Ahmadinejad's government, in an "illegal" action, sidelined him, and the Foundation of the Oppressed, which was a partner of Turkcell, became a partner of MTN. Meanwhile, Masoum Fardis, the Deputy Minister of Communications and Information Technology under Khatami, who believed that "for technical reasons" the contract with Turkcell was preferable to the contract with "MTN," was arrested and sentenced to six years in prison on charges of "espionage." He told prisoners in Ward 350 of Evin Prison that he did not know the reason for his imprisonment, but it was presumably related to the disputes over this contract. Although the judiciary had issued a prison sentence for Fardis on charges of "espionage," he was granted leave and traveled abroad to attend court and defend himself against Iran, as he was well-versed in this contract. Years later, Reuters reported that the South African company MTN had bribed officials from both countries to win this contract, and Iranian officials had also requested the delivery of military equipment, including "drones," and South Africa's support for Iran's nuclear program. Chris Kilowan, a former executive at MTN, spoke of bribing Javid Ghorbanoglu, Iran's ambassador to South Africa, and several other officials. Years after these events, Ahmad Khorram has been removed from the management scene of the Islamic Republic, but Ali Abedzadeh remains the head of the Civil Aviation Organization. Additionally, Javid Ghorbanoglu is active in the Institute for the Compilation and Publication of Imam Khomeini's Works and writes about foreign policy for Iranian media. Masoum Fardis has been released from prison, and Hamid Reza Aref is known for his remarks about "good genes."