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Speech of His Excellency Mr. Mashaee on the Tourism development of Iran and India 

First of all I thank you for your presence in this function and sincerely thank you for the friendly environment created. I thank the presence of the dignitaries, the Consul General and Ladies and Gentlemen. I invite you to come to Iran and I personally am you host. I am very happy to be given this opportunity to elaborate on the need of the relations of the two great nations, Iran and India and the efforts for developing the relations. You know all Iranians love the Indian people very much and it is one Iranian perception that Indian love Iranians. If you look at the history no where will you find a long period of relationship and continuous at that, as the relations between India and Iran. Farsi language itself enjoyed a prevalence of 800 years in this country. The Indian nation is civilized and very ancient so is the Iranian nation. Both are the founders of the human civilization. But the common heritage of these two nations are even more majestic, in a way the product of cultural interaction of the two Indian and Iranian nations as a civilization collection is exceedingly higher than other countries. I stated this fact in my talk with the Minister of Culture and also with your Vice President. It is a great cruelty and crime should these two nations live afar and not to realize its status, it is not only crime to the people of India and Iran but to the people of the world. The world today is clutched with big problems. The tensions are too many. The challenges are immense and with the present logic of management the future looks bleak. What is the root cause of this challenge? We are repeating in the Third Millennium what we did in the 1^st and 2^nd millennium? For the people of the 3^rd millennium these challenges are not unbecoming. I suggested to the Indian officials that the rich Indian culture is sufficient enough to manage the world. So does the Iranian culture because they are imbibed in the human potentials and capacities. The intelligence and knowledge stand together. If India and Iran stand together and present to the world a pattern for living, imposition is utterly unrequired. It is like clear and potable water which quenches the thirsty hearts. I gave my suggestions but I am hopeful hat this responsibility is not lost in the clash of the authorities. Dear friends when we introduce Iran; it is one of the ten big countries historically; there was metal works in Iran 5000 years ago. 3000 years ago there was gold artifacts in Shoosh, people used to come from all over the world to Shoosh. Last year during pipe lying of water supply a private temple belonging a ruler was discovered. It relates back to 2650 years and various articles were found which were enchanting. Among them was a bracelet which, were made out of gems as well gold. It we were to show these articles to the world not even not even one person would believe that this article relates to 2650 years back. If at all, one would say it is at most 50 years old. There are lots of things to be said on the issue both before Islam and after Islam. Iran boasts of more than a million historical art pieces. Islam emerged in the Arab land. The Arab put in lots of efforts. Iranian weren’t Arab neither the language nor the nationhood was Arab. But which historian would not say that the services of the Iranians for the foundation lying of the Islamic Civilization were singularly not less than the entire Arab nation. Because Islam was a gem and the Iranians were the gem assessors. You find Iranian scholars and scientists in the different fields of chemistry and physics and in history.

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I’ve another point to present and then I will return to the tourism subject. Big nations invariably had despot rulers. Whenever these nations were ruled upon by competent and capable management found opportunities to blossom and bloom upon their talents.

And whenever they were ruled upon by incompetent management the period was one of shame and indignity. You will sample them in the history of Indian nation and … this is the story of all nations and Iran is no exception as well. Before the Islamic Revolution, some centuries passed in the administration by corrupt and incompetent elements which did not recognize the status and dignity of the nation. Why did the Iranians revolt? What did they want? They revolted to avail of the unidentified cultural potentials became the identity of the Iranians were degraded. Let no one interpret this as a political issue. I want to speak about tourism. Why, despite a high capability of cultural historical and natural resources we failed to make achievements. I wan to draw your attention and point out to you before the Islamic revolution, due to pressure and bullying of the big governments the Iranian nation were disgraced. They manipulated a law in Iran whereby if they come to Iran from beyond the seas apart from distance and climatic disadvantages should they succumb to a crime no court of law and judicial organ in Iran had the right to proceed a legal case against their crimes and this meant disgrace of a nation and so the Iranian nation revolted, a people’s revolution with the least violence and bloodsheds. Those who blame a deep culture do not resort to violence easily but the people were accused of being violent. From the day when they decided to revive their glorious culture they were charged with the most baseless accusations. A big phenomenon in the world is assigned to blacken Iran’s image. We were put under economic sanctions right from day one. They trampled all laws and regulations. The nuclear energy issue was brought forward. They said you don’t need one. But when they saw the programme is serious they said you don’s produce, we will give it to you.   You know very well they are not supplying to us the airplane equipment and spare parts. Did the Iranian sit idle? Is Iran the same as they propagate? Those who come to Iran know that we have accessed the nuclear energy despite the total economic sanctions. We have progressed in the nano technology. In medicine, we have shone brightly and we are one of the important countries of the world in the satellite industries. This is the same kind nation. The violent person does not progress. To which country does violence and crises befit? Which country supports crisis and insecurity? Do the Indian and Iranian nation, with so much human resources and intelligence and thinking power and with so much bountiful rich resources, is it a crime if they intend to develop and progress.

A country that has everything and everything is ready to progress. Are these very governments seeking insecurity? The answer is clear. The Revolution occurred. Today tourism is the symbol of a country’s interest for developing relations with the world. Tourism is the sign of a cultural capability of any country and tourism is an important political issue, although it is recognized as general people’s issue. We are accused of not wanting others to come to Iran although it is a big trend of propaganda by blackening the image of Iran does not wish (people from other countries) to visit Iran. Everyone knows that Iran has stood up against the big powers because it does not want to continue playing servant to big bosses. Dr. Ahmadinejad in his initial days when he took over the presidency had declared both in Tehran and in New York as well, that the Islamic republic of Iran is ready to commence the direct Tehran/New York flight but as was foreseen no response was given. If the American people were to come to Iran and see Iran everything would get clear. If only the world would know that Iran has not submitted to oppressive powers but has progressed nevertheless.

The eight year war is not forgotten the means of hardship for the country. For years we couldn’t attend to such affairs. It is only 2/3 years that tourism has taken off. We have to learn a lot from you and from the people of the world experiences in the field of tourism development. This industry is newly sprung in our country but we are confident because our pockets are full, not that we have money but because our minds are at peace we have foreseen in our planning to have 20 millions tourists by 2025 but we can shorten it to 2010. We are keen for investments. We guarantee both the principal amount and the profit we have readied the travel packages. These packages are a thousand in number, i.e. the travel routes will add to 1000 numbers and each route can have lots of packages. We shall not have any limitation for the Indian people as far as visa is concerned. There is no reason an Indian would not get visa. We are presently issuing a fortnight’s visa on arrival which is extendable by another 15 days. I hope a day will come when all the people of India even the world and the Islamic countries travel to Iran without visa and see Ira

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