Int'l book fair wraps up in Tehran

The 29th international book fair wrapped up in Tehran on Sunday after 11 days of exhibition of textual, software and pictorial materials.

The 11-day fair was kicked off in the newly constructed Shahr-e-Aftab (Sun City) Exhibition Complex in south of the capital on May 4 with the slogan of "Tomorrow Is Too Late to Read."

In the fair, international publishers and exhibitors displayed their publications on 7,000 stalls and booths to the visitors from across the country.

Tens of thousands of topics ranging from media, academic, fiction, poetry, scientific and educational to religious displays attracted old and young from different walks of life.

Tehran's municipality relocated the fair this year from Imam Khomeini Mosalla in central capital to the Shahre Aftab in southern Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani hailed the fair at the opening ceremony as a great cultural event.

Russia was the guest of honor at the book fair, which also hosted approximately 6000 distributors of world publishers.

The director of Russia's Federal Agency on Culture and Cinema, Mikhail Shvydkoy pointed to the cultural and historical commonalties between Iran and Russia and said that the main similarity between the two countries is that they do not change their traditions and values by force.

He added that the events occurring over the past few decades prove that sanctions cannot be obstacles in the way of a country's progress. Endit