Youstone interview with representative of the Qatar national stone trade fair(May 4-7, 2015)

• I request you as a representative of the Qatar Fair Company, explain us about the Qatar government visa issuing procedures and the reason for the denial of Iranian participants’ visas until exhibition opening.

We have been organizer of Iranian participants of the Qatar Project Fair for the last 6 years and, we have never faced such a problem. This year, we applied for visas earlier than previous years. Organizer Company should request visa according to license issued by Qatar Ministry of Trade (we also have same procedures in our country).

At the beginning , a list of participants from all over the world with their passport copies, should be sent to the Qatar Ministry of Trade at a specified date. Then, they determine whether to issue avisa or disapprove a participant’s application, based on received lists and their issued licenses. Finally, there will be some accepted participants of say, 1500 persons.

• Please let’s know how long before the opening, the Qatar government should inform this confirmation to participants?

Normally, we apply for visa one month before the opening date of the fair. We send participants documents for the organizer company of the fair. Then, they pursue the required processes in a week and finally they send all received lists to the Ministry of Trade who send confirmed application to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to issue visas based on their rules and regulations. This year, same process is followed and Iranian participants’ visas were issued. But, at the end, issued visas were sent to the Ministry of Interior for political and security checks to determine which countries get license to attend. Finally, they denied visas for Iran, Russia, Lebanon and Pakistan. Most of Lebanese and Pakistanis participants could get the visa until the trade opening. But Iranians and Russians could not attend at the trade. As a result, 900 square meters space which belonged to these two countries were empty and covered.

• Has the Qatar’s government announced anything officially to Iran’s government?

The Qatar government has done nothing to clarify the situation or apologize officially. As I said before, there is an explanation on the website about visas status which says “under process”, it means the visa issuing is in process and there is no specific problem.

We have requested the authorities for investigation into the matter, but our complaint won’t cure the problem for the present time. However, it might be a solution and avoid further damages for future cases. We don’t know yet about the course of actions our Foreign Ministry and Embassy will conduct and how they complain about the case and the way Qatar’s government will respond. So far, we have received no response from any party yet.

Maryam Shaghaghi of Youstone interview with Mr.Motamedi of Nojan Rad co. (Iranian representative of IFP (Qatar Natural Stone Trade Fair )