DUSHANBE, July 10, 2015, Asia-Plus -- The fate of a joint Persian-language TV project is still unclear.

In a report released at a news conference released in Dushanbe, the TV and Radio-broadcasting Committee head Mahmadsaid Pirov noted on July 10 that Tajikistan has fulfilled all its obligations on the joint Persian-language TV project while “Iran and Afghanistan have not yet fulfilled their obligations on the project for unknown reasons, and therefore, the launch of the joint TV channel has been delayed for years.”

“Under a trilateral agreement concluded between Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran, each of sides had to provide premises for the joint TV channel,” Pirov said.  “We have provided premises in the building of the TV Channel Safina .”

We will recall that Tajikistan, Iran and Afghanistan leaders met in Dushanbe in 2006 and agreed to establish a joint television channel.  At a two-day ministerial meeting that took place in Dushanbe on March 24-25, 2008, the foreign ministers of Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and Iran agreed to establish a new Dushanbe-based Persian-language television channel to broadcast in each country.  The programs aired by the joint station are expected to focus mainly on cultural issues.

In August 2008, the heads of state of Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Iran signed appropriate documents on the establishment of the join TV channel in Dushanbe on sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit.  The headquarters of the television channel would be based in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe.

But implementation of the Persian-language TV station project has been postponed for an indefinite term due to some technical reasons.