Promoting an overshadowed domestic agenda, President Barack Obama on Thursday will propose a new tax credit and other steps aimed at persuading
It also offers an important lesson in how much political capital is vested in Iran’s effort to stake its claim as the scientific vanguard of the Muslim world.
Iran plans a major tech exhibition beginning Saturday in Damascus, Syria, whose underlying purpose seeks show that international sanctions have not crippled Iran’s labs.
The expo is expected to showcase an array of made-in-Iran innovations from more than 120 companies including precision industrial equipment, nanotechnology and aerospace-related items. No nuclear technology is on the list.
An Iranian diplomat in Syria told The Associated Press that the five-day exhibition — the first of its kind outside Iran — aims to show “friend and foe” that sanctions have not slowed Iran despite claims by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and others. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to brief reporters.
Ali Reza Khamesian, a journalist for the moderate newspaper Melleat-e Ma newspaper in Tehran, said the technology show seeks to project Iran as the “most powerful and independent country in the region.”
“It has a clear goal,” he said. “That is to show the regional countries that Iran is unique since it has achieved technological achievements” despite sanctions.
During the coming week, Iranian officials have promised to display a new range of rockets and satellites — which could raise more concern in the West that Iran’s space program spilling over into possible efforts at creating a long-range ballistic missile arsenal.
A year ago, Iran announced it launched some animals — including a mouse, two turtles and worms — briefly into space on a research rocket. In February 2009, Iran sent its first satellite into orbit.
Meanwhile, Iranian officials have unveiled an array of purported advances in recent weeks, including a new gamma radiation units for medical treatments and a supercomputer billed as among the top 500 most powerful in the world.
Iran’s deputy president for science and technology, Salar Amuli, told state television that computer’s power will be used for areas that include nuclear physics.
On Kish Island in the Gulf, a biotech center is planned to make artificial tendons and ligaments , state-run Press TV reported.
Besides the jabs against sanctions, Ahmadinejad also plays heavily on the connection between technology and Persian pride. He frequently sprinkles his remarks about how Iran should reclaim the banner of scientific advancement it once held as the Persian Empire.
‘History has shown that the Iranian nation was pioneer of achieving scientific progress,’ he said last week.
