Tabnak.ir this week carried a piece alleging abuses of power and position within Iran’s Arvand Free Zone (AFZ), under the heading, “Free Zone is a Pass-through for Regime Favorites.” Located along the Iran-Iraq border in Khuzestan, AFZ is one of Iran’s most ambitious free zone/special economic zone projects, and site of Khorramshahr port.
The story alleges that one connected individual got his job as Director of AFZ Flight Operations based on ‘exaggerated reports’ of his work experience, limited to “purchasing buses and setting up coolers.” Further, the brother in law of one of President Ahmediejad’s ‘best buddies’ was allegedly promoted to the post of the Director of Free Zone Investments immediately after Ahmedinejad was confirmed in his second term. In a third case, a scandal following the appointment of a son of the Chief of Staff of defeated Presidential candidate Mir Hussain Musavi to another high FZ appointment caused the relevant department the Free Zone to be quietly ‘neutralised.’ President Ahmedinejad, asked on a recent tour of the area where the Zone’s revenues were coming from, allegedly replied “I’ll look into it.”
The piece ends by questioning whether one of Iran’s high profile free zones have become simply a pass through for temporary directors, friends of those in high places and those looking for experience in the “Pistachio” business (a clear reference to the basis for former President Ayatollah Rafsanjani’s vast wealth). Arvand Free Zone was the subject of some controversy in 2005, after the British Ahwazi Friendship Society published documents it alleges shows the Iranian regime’s plan to relocate thousands if not hundreds of thousands of ethnic Arab Ahwazis from Arvand to make room for a 5000 sq km demilitarized zone, which it additionally alleged would facilitate Iran’s ‘de facto’ annexation of Basra–which its report notes is ‘literally a stone’s throw’ from the Zone in places (23 Teer 1388).
–EDC
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