Iran criticized the authorities of Tajikistan

In Tajikistan, customs duties on imported goods from Iran were suddenly increased. This has caused discontent among the authorities of Iran.

Samad Hasan-zadeh, head of the Chamber of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture of Iran, met with the Ambassador of Tajikistan in Iran, Nizomidin Zohidi.

At this meeting, the Iranian side criticized the “sudden increase in customs duties on certain goods imported from Iran to Tajikistan, which creates obstacles to the development of bilateral trade cooperation between the countries.”

At the same time, the Tajik side expressed dissatisfaction that “over the past 30 years, more than 250 cooperation agreements have been signed between the countries, and if even half of them had been implemented, trade turnover between the countries would have reached 1 billion dollars.”

The total trade turnover between Tajikistan and Iran increased from 100 million dollars in previous years to 270 million dollars in 2023; however, these figures do not satisfy either side, as the heads of the countries emphasized that there are opportunities to increase this figure to 500 million dollars.

 The peak of trade turnover between Tajikistan and Iran occurred from 2008 to 2013. In 2012, the trade turnover did not exceed 350 million dollars. At that time, Iranian billionaire Babak Zanjani, who also held a Tajik passport, launched several large projects in Tajikistan.

However, in the fall of 2013, Babak Zanjani was detained in Tehran, and his lawyers demanded the return of his capital of 3.5 billion dollars from Tajikistan. Immediately after that, political, cultural, economic, investment, and trade relations between Dushanbe and Tehran sharply deteriorated.

At that time, Tajikistan did not return Babak Zanjani’s money. Babak Zanjani has been in prison for 10 years.

A few days ago, Iranian authorities reported that Babak Zanjani’s money had been transferred to Iran in cash. However, they did not specify through which countries the money was delivered to Iran. There is now a possibility that Babak Zanjani will be released. However, it is unknown whether he will return to Tajikistan to regain his assets.