Azernews.Az

By Kamila Aliyeva

The leading banks of France refuse to cooperate with Iran due to concerns over the U.S. sanctions, Iranian envoy said.

Iran’s Ambassador to Paris Ali Ahani has urged the French companies to ignore the sanctions threats and grab the chance for cooperation with Iran, Fars news agency reported.

Addressing an economic conference in Paris discussing investment opportunities in Iran, the envoy criticized the French banks cautious behavior about doing business with Iran.

French and other European companies have returned to Iran since the partial lifting of international sanctions in January 2016, when a landmark nuclear deal with world powers came into force.

However, international banks have not re-established financial circuits with Iran, fearing reprisals from Washington which has maintained some economic sanctions against the country. In addition, U.S. President Donald Trump has long been known as a main critic of Iran’s policy and nuclear deal.

Nevertheless, Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, earlier announced that Iran-EU trade witnessed a considerable surge over the last year as the figure rose by 78 percent to post 13.7 billion euros in 2016.

French Economy Minister Michel Sapin earlier promised that France will do everything to ensure the trust of international banks in the issue of cooperation with Iran as developing economic ties requires the normalization of banking relations as well.

Iran, five permanent UN Security Council members, Germany and the European Union signed the JCPOA in July 2015 to ensure the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program.

Then, the Islamic republic pledged to refrain from developing or acquiring nuclear weapons in exchange for the lifting of sanctions imposed against Iran.

---

Kamila Aliyeva is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Kami_Aliyeva

Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz