Europe-Iran Business Forum to run next month

TEHRAN- A conference on investment opportunities in Iran, aimed at attracting the European investors who want to tap Iranian markets if the U.S. sanctions are again lifted, will take place next month, Bloomberg reported.

The Europe-Iran Business Forum, which is funded by the European Union, will run during December 14-16 and will be the first of its kind in two years, according to a statement by its organizers.

International conferences on Iran’s economy, trade and banking sectors had surged following the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran, the U.S., European Union, Russia and China, but they virtually disappeared after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the accord in 2018 and renewed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to return the U.S. to the Iran accord, which was brokered by the Obama administration when he was vice president. He’s said that he wants Iran to return to full compliance to the deal in exchange for the U.S. doing the same and lifting sanctions.

The investment conference is being run by the U.N.’s International Trade Center — an agency jointly managed by the United Nations and the World Trade Organization — and the Iran Trade Promotion Organization.

The Milan-based European House-Ambrosetti is also supporting the event, which will be hosted on the company’s online conference platform, the statement said.

The trade between Iran and the EU nations has decreased in the current year due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and also as a result of the U.S. sanctions.

Last month, European Commission spokesperson for foreign affairs issues, Peter Stano, told the Tehran Times in an exclusive interview that the removal of sanctions is an “essential part” of the 2015 nuclear agreement.

He points to EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell’s remarks in a debate in the European Parliament on October 7 in which he said, “Iran had legitimate expectations that the ‘nuclear deal’ would result in more concrete economic benefits.”