TEHRAN, Feb 13 (AFP) - Iran`s conservative-dominated parliament approved legislation Sunday to reduce a Turkish telecom company`s stake in a second national mobile telephone network to a minority 49 percent.
Turkcell, which has a 70 percent holding in the contract for the network, last month threatened to scrap the deal if its stake was cut.
But hardliners in the Iranian parliament argued that having a telephone network run by a foreign company was contrary to national security, and could result in phone tapping or suspension of the service.
Under the legisation, all security issues related to the deal must be approved by the Supreme National Security Council and the Iranian stake must not drop below 51 percent.
Turkcell was awarded the contract in February 2004 subject to the payment of a 300-million-euro (366-million-dollar) licence fee.
But parliament voted in September 2004 to give itself the power to revise the contract under a bill that also targeted a 200-million-dollar contract with Turkish-Austrian consortium Tepe-Akfen-Vie (TAV) at Tehran`s new airport.
The moves have badly hit relations with Turkey, and Iran`s reformist government has accused MPs of being bad for foreign investment.
New Transport Minister Mohammad Rahmati said Tehran was considering handing the contract for the Imam Khomeini International Airport to six local companies if parliament scraps the TAV deal.
Iran`s hardline Revolutionary Guards dramatically closed the airport just a day after it opened in May last year, claiming that the Turkish-Austrian consortium had dealings with arch-enemy Israel.
Rahmati said the airport, located in the middle of the desert south of Tehran would reopen end of April or beginning of May, although it is not known when parliament may decide on the contract for the running of terminal one and the construction of a new terminal.
02/13/2005 17:24 GMT - AFP