Balancing Iran’s increasingly closer ties with Russian Federation and China, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is touring Europe to drum up as much renewed business with the West as he can now that his country is free of crippling sanctions.
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Rouhani’s trip was originally scheduled to visit Paris in November, but the trip was called off after Islamic extremists carried out attacks around Paris that killed 130 people. Feminist protestors from the FEMEN group launched a protest over his visit, draping a huge banner across one of Paris’s pedestrian bridges that read “Welcome Rouhani, Executioner of Freedom”. When it suspended sales in Iran in 2012 it lost almost 10 percent of global deliveries and interrupted a relationship with Iran that dates back more than 50 years.
Nematzadeh said worldwide banks only needed to respect three conditions to avoid falling foul of USA sanctions: not do work through a U.S. branch, avoid doing business with persons and entities on the sanction list, and not clear transactions via the United States.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, walks past a Swiss guard, at the end of a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican, Tuesday, Jan. 26, 2016.
He added that it was in Washington’s interest to no longer isolate Iran given the geopolitical reality of the region, saying it shouldn’t be pressured by the Israeli and Jewish lobby, which he said “are very influential in the U.S”.
Iran’s president has urged French business leaders to leave behind a period of “lose-lose” sanctions as he sought to reintroduce his country to France two weeks after implementation of a landmark nuclear deal with the west.
Activst Sarah Constantin, who put on the fake noose, said they organised the “public hanging” to draw attention to those executed for political reasons and put pressure on French President Francois Hollande to bring up human rights when he meets Rouhani.
French national railway operator SNCF and aluminum company Fives are also expected to unveil deals, Medef said. “At the same time today, if American investors and the heads of the American economy want to come to Iran and invest in my country, there are no problems from our point of view”.
Speaking through a translator, he said “that allowed us to reach accords” on curbing Iran’s nuclear program and lifting sanctions.
Under Thursday’s deal, set to be finalised in the middle of this year, Peugeot and Iran Khodro plan to modernize a factory near Tehran and be producing cars by mid 2017. Iran is also an active supporter of the government of Syrian President Bashar Assad, who France firmly opposes.
Reiterating Iran’s official stance, Rouhani blamed Shi’ite Iran’s Sunni regional rival Saudi Arabia for the drop in oil prices, which have halved since last May as global supply outstrips demand.
Iran’s decision to buy the A380 is a significant boost for Airbus. Iranian officials did not request the statues be covered up but were said to appreciate the gesture.
In a reference to Saudi Arabia, the Iranian president told an audience in Paris that “some countries had wanted to use terrorism for their own means”.
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“That was when we started to hear the sound of the revolution which started in France and spread around the world”, Rouhani said.
