By Vestnik Kavkaza
36 years ago, on February 11th 1979, the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran. It was the greatest event in the history of the country in the 20th century. “Any Iranian is proud that the Iranian people remain committed to the path and insist on making the achievements with their own hands throughout the 36 years,” Iranian Ambassador Mehdi Sanei says. “Sanctions have been imposed on Iran, but still everything is developing in Iran: science is developing, industry is developing. Iran was ranked seventh in nanotechnologies in 2014. Iran today is a powerful regional state that plays a very positive role in the Middle East.
Speaking about Russian-Iranian relations, the Ambassador pointed out that “in 2014 a serious memorandum was signed in the domain of cooperation in the trade-economic and energy sectors. A session of the intergovernmental commission was held in Tehran after it. The energy minister of Russia and the oil minister of Iran were present. They determined projects worth about $70 billion and reached an agreement that the projects had opportunities and potential for realization in the future. Moreover, concerning atomic energy, three documents were signed: the agreement on cooperation in the sector of atomic energy, which has become an extension of the agreement signed 20 years ago. The second document is the construction of the second and third blocks of the Bushehr Atomic Power Plant. The construction will start in 2015. The third document is the memorandum of understanding on cooperation in the sector of fuel production on the territory of Iran.”
Moreover, according to Mehdi Sanei, a permit was issued to export seafood and aquacultures from Iran to Russia; and now a permit is currently being issued for exports of dairy and animal husbandry products from Iran to Russia. “Very many different banking measures were taken to simplify the problems related to transfer of money between our countries. The central banks of the two states are currently holding negotiations to open accounts in rubles and rials. Iran is having negotiations with the Customs Union and the Eurasian Economic Union to reach an agreement to reduce customs duties. We hope that realization of the agreements would increase trade turnover between our countries.”
The Ambassador admitted that a drop of about 30% occurred from 2011 to 2013. "We hope that a reverse process would gain momentum this year. Realization of the agreements in 2015 would boost trade turnover to $20 billion. The sanctions against Russia, the fall of prices for energy carriers, the fluctuation of the ruble rate are not eternal. So, they were solved to a certain extent and will be dealt with in the future,” Mehdi Sanei said.
