Russian and Iranian media boasted last week about impending trade deals that may see Iran shrug off international sanctions, amid predictions from French figures that a trade deal between Paris and Tehran may be sealed within weeks. The Tehran Times Friday conveyed details from a Swiss-Iranian trade meeting.
In a meeting with Head of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture (ICCIMA) Gholam Hossein Shafe’ee, Haas described Switzerland as one of the main European trade partners of Iran, noting that Bern-Tehran trade exchanges must further enhance given the existing potentials in both countries. Shafe’ee, for his part, said that Iran is eager to utilize Switzerland’s stable and market-based economy and improve its trade volume with the Central European country. Official figures show that Switzerland’s exports to Iran totaled nearly USD 1.9 billion in the ten-month period ending on January 31, 2014.
Bern’s scramble to suspend trade bans and relax reporting regulations relating to Iranian trade had weeks ago already been cited as evidence of an emerging “gold rush” mentality taking hold internationally as Iranian markets were reopened to the global community. Meanwhile Voice of Russia published analysis, datelined Saturday, assessing that “Russia and Iran are getting ready for a new stage in their economic cooperation” as “Western sanctions relief opens doors for an array of huge opportunities in a range of sectors, primarily energy and oil industries.” Earlier last week Francois Nicoullaud, who served as France’s ambassador to Iran from 2001 to 2005, predicted to Bloomberg that “initial agreements” between Paris and Tehran would be reached “if not in coming days then maybe within the next few weeks.”
French auto and aviation companies visiting Iran may start shipping parts there within weeks, as they explore deals potentially worth hundreds of millions of dollars, a former French ambassador to the country said. “Initial agreements may be reached, if not in coming days then maybe within the next few weeks,” Francois Nicoullaud, France’s ambassador to Tehran from 2001 to 2005, said by phone from Paris yesterday. “Within weeks it will be possible to see the start of supplies.”
Obama administration officials have rushed to triage what increasingly appears to be a feeding frenzy of countries and companies rushing back into Iran, warning off both France and Turkey in recent days targeting a range of businesses across Europe and the Middle East for violating U.S. sanctions.
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