Rouhani: Hundreds of Foreign Companies, Investors Eying to Join Iranian Market

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced on Tuesday that a large number of foreign companies are waiting for a comprehensive deal between Tehran and the Group 5+1 (the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany) to rush for investment in the Iranian market.
“Hundreds of foreign companies have prepared themselves to enter Iran in the coming months,” President Rouhani said, addressing a large crowd of people in Golestan province, Northern Iran, on Tuesday.

The Iranian president reiterated that Iran will reach a final deal with the West over its nuclear program as the country is moving on the path of constructive interaction with the world.

“You should not have any doubt that the Group 5+1 (the US, Russia, China, France and Britain plus Germany), the western world, the eastern world and the region all are in need of constructive interaction with Iran,” President Rouhani added.

He reiterated that Iran is today at a juncture that the world has accepted its basic nuclear rights, and said, “The world today has accepted the nuclear enrichment to take place on Iranian territory.”

“The world has accepted that we have Arak heavy water reactor; the world has accepted that we continue our activities in Fordo.”

Rouhani underlined that the world has accepted that the time for imposing oppressive sanctions against Iran is over.

He pointed to the removal of “oppressive sanctions” as an inalienable right of the Iranian nation, and said, “You should have no doubt that Iran will become triumphant and Iran will be better off next year.”

President Rouhani is in Golestan province to inaugurate the joint railway of Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan.

The Iranian president said that his Turkmen and Kazakh counterparts will join him on Wednesday to attend the railway inauguration ceremony to be held at Inche-Boroun on Iran-Turkmenistan joint borderline.

President Rouhani pointed to the importance of the troika railway for economic development of the country, and said, “This is a new corridor from the Southern parts of the country to the Northern parts with positive outcomes for political and economic relations.”

Iran has, on many occasions, underlined that it has paved the way for attracting more investments in its ports, free trade zones, and development projects.

Meantime, so many foreign countries and international companies have voiced their enthusiasm for investing in the country’s projects.

Last month, a senior energy official announced that the Iranian Oil Ministry is in talks with a sum of 18 European and Asian companies for joint ventures in Iran’s oil industry development projects.

“We are now negotiating with 15 European companies and 3 Asian firms for partnership in exploration operations in 40 Iranian oil blocks,” Hormuz Qalavand, the exploration director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), told reporters.

The 10th and last round of negotiations between Iran and the six world powers was held in Vienna from November 18 to 24.

In July, Tehran and the six countries agreed to extend negotiations until November 24 after they failed to reach an agreement on a number of key issues.

After the last round of the Vienna talks, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and EU coordinator Catherine Ashton announced that the deadline for negotiations had been extended until July 10, and the world powers had taken up to release $700 million of Iran’s frozen assets on a monthly basis.