IRAN SEEKS TO LURE BACK EXPATRIATES

Late last month Mohsen Noorbakhsh, Iran's minister of economic affairs and finance, and other Iranian officials held unprecedented meetings in New York with Iranian professionals based in the United States, including academics, businessmen, and engineers. The purpose of the meeting ``was to inform them of Iran's economic and political reforms under way,'' says Mohammad Jaffar Mahallati, former Iranian ambassador to the UN and former director of international affairs at Iran's Foreign Ministry. Iran has suffered a brain drain during the 12 years since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. An estimated 1 million Iranians live in the US, and Iran would like to see them return.