0 Persons
7 February 2013 - 12:51

Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast has rejected Western media reports about the arrest of an Iranian national in Germany.

“No Iranian national has been arrested in Germany and Western media are trying to use this issue to create hype against Iran,” Mehmanparast said on Wednesday.

Western media claimed that former head of Iran’s Central Bank, Tahmasb Mazaheri, has been arrested at Germany’s Duesseldorf Airport in January with a 70-million-dollar check issued by the Central Bank of Venezuela in his possession.

Mehmanparast said the issue is related to one of the Iranian companies managing engineering projects in Venezuela.

“The project should have been paid for by the government and as some of the directors of the company were in Iran, this is completely normal,” the Iranian official added.

Mazaheri himself has also rejected the reports.

Over the past six years, Iran and Venezuela have signed a number of memoranda of understanding and contracts for joint participation and investments in oil and gas projects.

To ease a chronic housing shortage in Venezuela, the country is working with companies from China, Iran, Turkey and Belarus for construction as well as financing of homes.

So far, Iranian companies have built over 10,000 housing units in Venezuela and the construction of another 7,000 homes is in the final stages.
press tv/281

News ID 184171