TEHRAN - Iran on Wednesday said it had given the green light for negotiations to start with other potential partners to create a second mobile telephone network, throwing into doubt a deal it had already signed with Turkish firm Turkcell.
The comments by Minister of Communication Ahmad Motamedi were the latest twist in the protracted wrangle between Iran and Turkcell over the project.
"Turkcell`s participation in the second operator of mobile phones has not been cancelled but the Iranian partners of the project have received permission to start negotiations with other consortia," Motamedi was quoted by the student news agency ISNA as saying.
"This decision is because we have not received a positive response from Turkcell yet," he noted.
Turkcell executives have been reviewing the contract to establish the mobile network jointly with Iranian partners after Iran`s conservative parliament cut Turkcells 70 percent share in the original agreement to 49 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 then moved to revise the deal.
Deputies argued that having a telecommunications network in the hands of a foreign company was a danger to national security.
A second snag came in April when Iran`s hardline political watchdog, the Guardians Council, ordered that the contract with Turkcell must be changed once more.
The council said it was not convinced that the new security provisions in the contract decided on by the parliament went far enough in protecting Iranian interests.
The problems surrounding the contract have stalled the development of a badly needed second mobile network, and have also badly hit relations with Turkey.
06/22/2005 13:53 GMT