European business executives and investors are initiating preliminary arrangements to resume commercial ties with Tehran shortly after the Geneva nuclear agreement went into effect.
Many European countries, including France, Germany and the Netherlands, are planning to enhance their economic relations with Iran, a business powerhouse in the Middle East region, as sanctions imposed against Tehran are partially suspended, the Associated Press reported.
“Optimism is predominating that there has finally been something of a relaxation in political relations and therefore in business possibilities,” said the head of trade relations at the Association of German Chambers of Commerce Volker Treier.
The association invited the representatives of German private sectors to hold a meeting over doing business in Iran and the interested representatives “filled the room very quickly,” Treier added.
The Dutch ambassador to Iran Jos Douma held a similar meeting last week in the Netherlands to discuss the terms of cooperation between Tehran and the Dutch companies which are eager to return to the Iranian market.
Paris is also sending the executive representatives of around 100 French firms to Tehran for “exploratory” negotiations with Iranian officials in a bid to tap into the potential for mutual economic cooperation between the two sides.
On January 20, Iran and the six powers started the implementation of the historic nuclear deal which the two sides struck in the Swiss city of Geneva on November 24, 2013.
Under the Geneva nuclear deal, Iran as a confidence-building measure agreed to limit certain aspects of its nuclear activities and the sextet undertook to provide Iran with some sanctions relief and release more than USD four billion of Tehran’s frozen assets.
