Thirty historical artifacts returned to Iran in past two years
Iran’s Minister of Cultural Heritage, Handicrafts, and Tourism reported that 30 historical artifacts have been returned to Iran since the incumbent government took office two years ago.
Ezzatollah Zarghami on Wednesday cited the return of the rock relief of an Achaemenid soldier as an example of the achievement, according to Fars news agency.
Expressing dissatisfaction with the current efforts at restoring historical buildings, he said that a special new office in the ministry will be dedicated to overseeing the efforts and issuing expert warnings to the institutions that are putting the buildings to use.
“The law mandates that any institution that uses historical buildings must financially support the restoration of those buildings,” he underlined.
The minister also announced that 850,000 foreign tourists have visited Iran since the beginning of the current Iranian year (which started on March 21), 550,000 of whom arrived in Iran in the month to June 21.
He stressed that despite attempts made by some European countries like France to prevent tourists from traveling to Iran, the visits have increased.
“The fact that France is currently falling into utter chaos and dealing with widespread arson and looting proves that Macron should have been careful of what he was wishing for,” Zarghami pointed out.
However, he maintained that the Achilles’ heel of the country’s development is its diffused leadership in many of its important national missions such as facilitating tourism.
“The inefficient management of this sector, which has haunted us for years, does not allow plans to conclude,” he said, adding that, fortunately, the ministry has proposed various solutions including the establishment of a council of provincial governors that will have the last word in many issues of tourism, which was eagerly received by the government and adopted in Iran’s Seventh National Development Plan.
Earlier, the minister also said that Iran is planning a visa waiver program for 50 countries unilaterally. Zarghami then expressed his belief that a collective alliance should be formed to cancel visas with a large number of countries.
Referring to the rumored plan to tax social media influencers, Zarghami concluded his remarks by denying any knowledge of such a plan.