On the first visit to Iran for 12 years by a French high official, France’s
foreign minister Laurent Fabius conveyed an invitation from President Francois
Hollande to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani to visit France inNovember
Fabiusis on a visit to Iran to explore business opportunities. Last
week, German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel became the first senior Western
official to visit Iran following the agreement to ease sanctions on the
Islamicnation in exchange for concessions on its nuclear program.
The last Iranian president to make a state visit to France was Mohammad
Khatami in 1999, when Jacques Chirac was president.
Fabius met with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif and was also due
to meet Rouhani on his one-day visit, two weeks after a landmark deal under
whichWestern sanctions are to be lifted in exchange for limits on Iran’s
nuclear programme.
France hopes to secure business deals in Iran once international sanctions
are lifted, and Fabius said last week that his hard line in the nuclear
negotiations wouldnot stand in the way of French business opportunities.
Some Iranian hardliners want to block French business deals because of
Paris’s stance during the talks and France’s close ties with Gulf Arab
governments that arelocked in a regional power struggle with Tehran.
No businessmen came with Fabius on this first visit, in contrast with the
swarm of German businessmen who already traveled there.German companies
did extensive business in Iran for decades until sanctions forced them to all
but pull out.Among those hoping to profit now are industrial giants such
as ThyssenKrupp, BASF, Volkswagen and Siemens, which was involved in the
construction of Iran’s first railways in the late 19th century.
Last year, Germany imported goods worth 295 million euros from Iran and
exported goods not covered by the sanctions worth 2.39 billion euros ($2.6
billion). Deutsche Bank analysts last week predicted the German
exportsalone could soon top 4.4 billion euro, the level they were at
before the sanctions were introduced a decade ago.
But Germany celebrates the 50th anniversary of its diplomatic ties with
Israel this year, and its dealing with Iran are under particular scrutiny at
home and abroad.
Green party lawmaker Volker Beck, a longtime supporter of Israel, said this
week that the current Iranian government shouldn’t be considered a friend or
partner for Germany.
“The human rights situation in Iran remains catastrophic and the Iranian
regime continues to support terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas,” said
Beck.
In an op-ed published in German daily Handelsblatt, the head of the World
Jewish Congress, Ronald S. Lauder, said it would have been much better to make
new commercial relations with Iran dependent on a change in theregime’s
stance toward Israel.
The German government made clear that wasn’t an option.
“The German economy minister is there to help his country and its economy,”
said Gabriel. “And next week the French, the Italians (are going to Iran).”
Spain is also planning to send an official delegation to Iran in September.
Austria’s president plans to travel to Iran on Sept. 7-9, likely making him the
first Western head of state to do so.
Switzerland, which for decades acted as an intermediary between the United
States and Iran, and represents American consular interests in Iran, also hopes
to profit from its good standing with the government there.
Livia Leu, a former Swiss ambassador in Tehran and now the country’s top
trade envoy, said Iran could become a very interesting market.
“With almost 80 million citizens it’s a large country that’s rich in
natural resources,” said Leu. “Like in every large country there are
wide-ranging needs that stretch from big infrastructure projects to consumer
goods such as food,pharmaceutical and medical products.”
At a two-day EU-Iran business conference in Vienna, the Iranian deputy oil
minister said his country hopes to do deals worth $185 billion (nearly 170
billion euros) for oil and gas projects alone by 2020.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has declared repeatedly that the security
of Israel is one of the fundamental tenets of the German state. Her office said
she didn’t mention her deputy’s trip to Iran in a phone call with
IsraeliPrime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.
http://www.neurope.eu/article/fabius-in-tehran-the-wests-rush-to-tehran-has-begun/