“No Invitation for US Lawyers to Visit Iran”

Head of Iranian Bar Association (IBA) Ali Najafi Tavana on Tuesday stressed that the country has not invited any American attorneys to visit Tehran.

In an interview with Tasnim on Tuesday, Najafi Tavana said, “We have not invited any American lawyers to visit Iran.”

He added that the Iranian Bar Association (IBA) has no information about a planned trip to Iran by American attorneys.

Najafi Tavana noted, however, that attorneys, given the nature of their career, can travel to different countries.

The remarks came after an American website announced earlier that a group of US lawyers and business leaders are scheduled to pay a visit to Iran soon in the near future.

On Monday, Tampa Tribune reported that John Bierley, attorney of Tampa, Florida, and a group of American lawyers and businessmen had headed to Iran on Thursday after a stop in Dubai.

According to the report, the mission is to see what the future might hold in the realm of people-to-people and business-to-business relations.

It added that for Bierley, who specializes in international law, trade and real estate, the trip is more about making connections than deals.

“You could say it is a scouting trip,” he said. “I’m not doing any business in Iran. Put it this way, I am familiarizing myself relative to what the future might be.”

Bierley is one of several people leaving from Tampa as part of a Society of International Business Fellows trip.

“As a lawyer, I hope to meet some lawyers. And I hope to meet some academic personalities where I might discuss the economic and political future of doing business there,” he added.