Iran to Leave ThyssenKrupp's Board

The representative of the Iranian government on the supervisory board of German heavy industry giant ThyssenKrupp is to give up his seat on the board, it emerged Thursday, with press reports suggesting the move was a result of pressure from the United States. The name of Mohamad-Mehdi Navab-Motlagh, deputy minister for economic and international affairs in Tehran, is not on the list of supervisory board members proposed for re-election at ThyssenKrupp's upcoming annual shareholders meeting on Jan. 21. The list of candidates for re-election was published in the invitation to the meeting and was made available on ThyssenKrupp's Web site. A spokesman for the company declined to comment on the matter. However, a number of German newspapers suggested that the departure of the Iranian government official from ThyssenKrupp's supervisory board was a condition imposed by the US administration for including the German steel and engineering giant in public contracts in the US. Washington had already compelled ThyssenKrupp to cut Iran's stake in the company to less than 5 percent in 2003, the reports said.