Iran will not be able to resume fruitful economic ties with leading European countries if its trade relation with the US is not normalized, Mohammad Reza Sabzalipour, president of Iran World Trade Center, told Trend.
Giving the fact that the US was the leader of the six world powers in nuclear talks with Iran, and the country had a leading role in imposing sanctions against the Islamic Republic, Tehran needs to reach an agreement with Washington to revive its trade ties with the West, Sabzalipour said.
In the post-sanctions period, Washington still remains the leader of the Western party in resuming economic ties with Tehran, he added.
The European countries follow up the US, which is the world’s first economic power, regarding the ties with Iran as they did during the nuclear talks, according to Sabzalipour.
He further said that certain European firms and banks have still concerns on resuming ties with Tehran and need guarantees from the US that they will not be penalized if ties with Iran are strengthened.
Sabzalipour also believes that the US is interested in Iran’s market, adding that President Hassan Rouhani should achieve a JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) in terms of economy- or JCPOA2 as Rouhani himself said – via holding fundamental talks with the P5+1 group of countries leaded by the US.
The international sanctions imposed on Iran with regard to its nuclear program have been removed as the JCPOA (also known as nuclear deal) entered the implementation phase on Jan. 16.
Iran and the P5+1 (the US, France, the UK, Germany, China, and Russia) in July 2015 agreed a landmark nuclear deal to curb Tehran’s sensitive nuclear activities in return for the lifting of international sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Sabzalipour believes that no Iranian trade delegation will be sent to the US in the near future and there are no plans to send one. However, he did say that several economic delegations from Iran traveled to the US over the past several years and vise versa.
Sabzalipour said that the problem in this case is related to Iran’s Industry Ministry which tries to have an exclusive role in dispatching trade delegations to the US.
Iran World Trade Center earlier had plans to send an economic delegation to the US in autumn, which was canceled after disputes erupted between the center and the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran’s Industry Ministry.
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