BERLIN (AP)--Germany's reduction in trade with Iran as part of Western sanctions isn't hurting the country as competitors from Asia step in to fill the gaps, an Iranian deputy foreign minister said Friday.
Mehdi Safari told reporters in Berlin that Iran's trade with Asia and Pacific nations had more than doubled in the past three years to reach about $90 billion in 2007. That number is expected to grow to more than $100 billion this year, he said.
At the same time, trade with Germany - for decades one of Iran's most important trading partners - and with other European nations has shrunk, Safari said.
"Who is losing, you have to ask yourself," Safari said. "We are doing our job."
Under Chancellor Angela Merkel, Germany has cut back trade with Iran as part of western-led efforts to force Tehran to suspend its uranium enrichment program.
German exports to Iran shrank to EUR3.2 billion in 2007 from EUR4.3 billion in 2006, according to figures released in February by the Economic Ministry.
Yet Safari insisted his nation sees no link between its nuclear program and the drop in trade, saying Iran had cooperated fully with the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, or IAEA.
"We did our job with the IAEA," Safari said. "We did a good job, we answered all of the questions that supposedly they asked us."
While in Berlin, Safari held talks with his counterparts in Germany's Foreign Ministry, as well as with several high-ranking businessmen.
"I told them please, don't lose the market," he said. "If you don't supply some of the parts, we will substitute them and it will be very hard to come back."
The opposition pro-business Free Democrats have criticized Merkel's government for making it difficult for mid-sized Germans firms to do business in Iran.
Asked if reports that average Iranians are starting to feel the effect of the international sanctions, Safari insisted no one in his nation was suffering.
"When I said that the numbers of the trade are coming down, I didn't say that we are suffering -maybe you are suffering!" he said. "Because we can make a deal with the others for the same goods, for the same qualities and for the same projects."