| Hussein Piruzi, the manager of the Imam Khomeini Airport, which was shut by troops on its first working day on 8 May for purported security reasons, told ISNA on 11 May that the Transport Ministry has ordered the airport to remain shut, "until [those] events ... are clarified and the government makes a decision, and until there are specific procedures at the airport and we no longer witness such problems." He said that the Tepe-Akfen-Vie consortium is no longer running the airport, but there must be a "clarification" of its status and that of its equipment at the airport, ISNA reported. Ja’far Pursadeqian, the public relations chief for the state aviation authority, said on 11 May that the consortium’s employees were asked to leave the airport on 7 May, "due to objections by the armed forces", though this did not prevent the closure, Fars News Agency reported the same day. The contract with the consortium, he said, is currently "in a state of suspension," though not cancelled, farsnews.com reported. |
