Hardly a day passes without some media outlet in the Islamic Republic talking about European firms eagerly lining up and just about begging to invest in Iran. But there are barely any names ever mentioned.
So, the editors at the Iran Times took note last week when the Mehr news agency reported that Maire Tecnimont, a major Italian engineering firm, had reached a “preliminary agreement” with Iran’s National Petrochemical Co. to build a new Petrochemical Park at Asaluyeh on the Persian Gulf.
This was the kind of specificity missing from so many news articles deigned to convince Iranian readers that sanctions are on their last legs as the world’s major companies leap at the opportunity to get back into Iran.
But here is what Maire Tecnimont has to say about the Mehr news agency story.
“Maire Tecnimont wishes to specify that no discussion is ongoing and therefore no agreement has been reached for building such a Petrochemical Park. Furthermore, no joint working group between Maire Tecnimont and NPC has been formed to that purpose, as incorrectly reported.”
The bottom line, the company said, is that it will only develop business inside Iran after the removal of international sanctions.
But the Mehr news agency deserves some credit; it published Maire Tecnimont’s denial of its earlier article.