Tehran, Iran, July 2
By Kamyar Eghbalnejad, A. Shirazi - Trend:
The chairman of the Iranian Mines and Mining Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO) said a project between Iran and Italy for cooperation in the steel and copper sectors will be implemented by the end of the current Iranian fiscal year (started on March 21) if the EU does not renege on its promises.
“An agreement worth €1 billion has been signed between Iran and Italy for cooperation in the sectors of steel and copper,” Mehdi Karbasian, who is also Iran’s deputy minister of industry, mining and trade, told Trend.
He added that the implementation process of the deal is expected to begin by the year-end if the European Union honors its deals with Iran and does not go back on its promises following Washington’s pullout from the 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.
US President Donald Trump announced on May 8 that Washington was walking away from the nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which was reached between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council - the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China - plus Germany.
Trump also said he would reinstate US nuclear sanctions on Iran and impose "the highest level" of economic bans on the Islamic Republic.
The senior Iranian official further said that IMIDRO has attracted 4 billion euros foreign finance during the second term of President Rouhani in office, adding that more absorption of capital depends on the EU and its future promises.
