By Ahmed Dorson

ANKARA

Iran’s Defense Ministry has shut down more than 130 of its companies, Defense Minister Amir Hatami said Monday.

In statements, the minister said the closed companies were active in the fields of transportation, energy and construction.

“The ministry has given up its shares in Wagon Pars and Iran Air Tours,” he said.

Wagon Pars is an Iranian train manufacturing company, whose products include locomotives, trains, metros, freight and fuel wagons, and aircraft equipment.

Iran Air Tours is a Tehran-based airline.

Hatami said the closure aims to reduce the role of the military in the economic sector.

The defense minister said former governments had privatized many companies owned by the military.

He went on to stress that the military was ready to transfer 72 percent of projects being carried out by the military-run companies to the private sector.

Last January, Hatami said that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the military to withdraw from the country's economic sector.