Speaking to IBNA, Mohammad Reza Wasfi explained about a $6 million debt of the 24th Tehran International Book Fair: “The major part of this debt was settled through the intermediary support of the UNESCO, an act has nothing to do with the Iranian governmental organizations.”
“$3,700,000 of this debt has been settled and the rest, in addition to our debts from the 25th TIBF has been deposited in a third bank, but due to the restrictions on transferring money to the accounts of the foreign publishers, it has not yet been paid to them,” he pointed out.
Wasfi further said: “As a result of such limitations, we could not adequately encourage the foreign publishers to participate at the forthcoming Tehran book fair, although in some earlier editions of this cultural event, we could showcase foreign books which had not yet even introduced in the European countries, but later the economic sanctions challenged our plans to achieve our goals.”
