Iran says US firms to lose to EU rivals once sanctions lifted

Iranian officials have warned US corporations that they stand to lose to their European rivals once the sanctions imposed on Iran are lifted as the result of an expected deal over the country’s nuclear energy program.

Majid Takht-Ravanchi, a senior member of Iran’s team of nuclear negotiators, has told the domestic media that a final agreement between Iran and P5+1 will pave the way for the investment of all foreign companies in Iran.

“However, it is only the Americans that will be left out of the Iranian market due to the sanctions that they have imposed [against investing in Iran] in the past,” Takht-Ravanchi has told the Persian-language economic magazine Tejart-e Farda.

“We believe that this is their own problem and we have no inclination that they [the Americans] change their laws. The fact of the matter is that they cannot enter the Iranian market due to the laws that they, themselves, have devised”.

Takht-Ravanchi’s comments come while negotiators from Iran and the US are in the Swiss city of Lausanne for a fresh round of talks over remaining obstacles on the way of a final agreement on the Iranian nuclear energy program. The Iranian team is led by Foreign Minister Mohammad-Javad Zarif and the US team is led by Secretary of State John Kerry. 

Following the talks, Zarif will leave for Brussels, Belgium, on Monday, where he will hold separate talks on Iran’s nuclear energy case with his German, French and UK counterparts.

Both Iran and the US have already emphasized that their latest meetings have been positive. Not much has come out to the media regarding the exact agenda of the talks. Nevertheless, speculations suggest that the timetable for the lifting of the sanctions is a key theme in current talks.

Takht-Ravanchi said that at the core of current talks is the removal of economic sanctions that have been imposed due to disputes on Iran’s nuclear energy program.  

“Iran faces different forms of sanctions and have already communicated to P5+1 that all sanctions [imposed on Iran due to its nuclear energy program] should be lifted,” he told Tejart-e Farda.  “We believe that all those sanctions – including those imposed through executive orders and those devised by the Congress – should be lifted”. 

The official further emphasized that much will change with regards to the conditions for foreign companies to invest in Iran once the sanctions are lifted. 

“Our viewpoint toward future economic cooperation with Europe will no longer be based on traditional trade and small-scale investments,” said Takht-Ravanchi, who is also a deputy foreign minister.

“We will tell the Europeans that their cooperation with Iran is going to be based on industrial trade and long-term investments”. 

He said Iran believes that its market is already too attractive for foreign companies – especially Europeans – to accept mandatory conditions that Tehran sets for them. 

“Iran should not raise the issue of attracting investments by European companies from the position of weakness. The benefits for the companies to investment in Iran are so much that they will rush to Tehran to raise their demand to invest in the country, themselves”.