Mohamed Issa: “There Is No Iranian Gift For Algiers Grand Mosque”

The carpet that will be spread in Algiers Grand Mosque is a gift from an Algerian figure and not from Iran, Religious Affairs and Endowments Minister, Mohamed Issa, said on Saturday.

“The carpet that will be spread in Algiers Grand Mosque is a complete collection of Iranian carpets that Iran donated to the Algerian mosque by an Algerian figure from its money, under the acceptance of an official gift, which makes the public treasury save millions of dollars”, Issa wrote on his Facebook page.

Issa responded to information about the exposure of a huge carpet that was offered by Iran to the Great Mosque for damage after being stored for more than three years by the Waqf Foundation in Bir Khadem, saying: “it is strange that some media in the last two weeks said that Algeria bought an Iranian carpet for Algiers Grand mosque, which cost the state budget millions of dollars, and that the area of ​​this “legendary”  carpet exceeds 20,000 square meters, while others claimed that the carpet was a gift granted by the State of Iran to Algiers Grand mosque”.

“In order to complete the scenario of frustrating the morale of the Algerian people and insulting state officials, some media outlets – without investigating – reported that the rats destroyed the carpet, as if we were in the” island of condom “as in the legends of “One Thousand and One Nights”.

“Two specialized companies, one of which is a public maintenance of these carpets, which first batch of 539 pieces was received at the end of 2014 by the Religious Affairs Ministry, in a contractual framework, with the Endowment Foundation and are kept in stores that are prepared under the technical supervision of these companies”.

According to the minister, the President of the Republic is following all steps to complete this project in response to information on hiding the fate of the carpet, and the stages of the completion of the Grand Mosque.