The French President, for his part, highlighted that the post- nuclear agreement condition has turned a new page in Tehran-Paris relations, as well as for the Islamic Republic’s relations with the worldwide community as a whole.
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Peugeot-Citroen announced a joint venture with Iran’s Khodro carmaker to produce 200,000 cars a year in Iran.
The Airbus deal alone is worth $27 billion at list prices and French government sources put a 15 billion euro ($16 billion) overall tag on the agreements. A banner on the bridge read: “Welcome Rouhani, executioner of freedom”. France has asked its European Union partners to consider new sanctions on Iran for its recent ballistic missile tests, officials have told The Associated Press. According to BBC, the lunch meeting between the two presidents was postponed to after the meal when Iranian officials requested that no wine be served during lunch.
They proposed that French President Francois Hollande invite Rouhani to visit a local Holocaust commemoration site with him. The deal has not yet been finalized, but Iran indicated earlier this week it would buy between 114 and 127 planes as the country reestablishes commercial air travel, which had been curtailed by sanctions.
The Iranian President then touched upon the issue of terrorism and called for collective efforts from all countries for fighting this scourge particularly in the Middle East region; “the Iranian nation is one of the major victims of terrorism in the world and as such is gravely resolved in fighting terrorism”.
Iran’s industry minister Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh said an agreement between French export-credit group Coface and the Iranian central bank signed this week was an important step in the right direction. Suez Environnement Co. will work on water-treatment measures in Tehran, Sanofi signed an accord on health products and Total SA inked a purchase accord for Iranian crude oil.
France took a hard line in the nuclear talks and condemned Iran for supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
France’s economy minister Emmanuel Macron said Rouhani had unveiled a new scheme to guarantee investment by French firms in Iran. “What we experienced under sanctions was a lose-lose situation that was the result of a wrong policy, a wrong policy that hurt everyone… but today we should seize the opportunity of the era after sanctions”, Rouhani said.
Rouhani also met Pope Francis on the first such Iranian foray into Europe since 1999.
Earlier in the week, Rouhani visited Italy, where he also signed deals worth billions of dollars.
He said that Iran carries risks, but “the biggest risk for us is the status quo”. Last week, Foreigh Minister Laurent Fabius visited Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia, Iran’s fierce rival, and Paris will shortly welcome the Saudi crown prince.
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Rouhani, a 67-year-old former academic and diplomat who is seen as a pragmatist, was elected in 2013 on a pledge to end sanctions and improve relations with the West.
