Tehran, Iran, June 17
By A. Shirazi- Trend:
The deputy head of Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture said the European Union plans to allocate $80 billion to different infrastructure projects in Iran in a bid to support the expansion of bilateral cooperation.
The EU plans to allocate a credit line of $80 billion to support cooperation between Iran and EU's small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), Pedram Soltani told Fars news agency on July 17.
“A European economic formation has been tasked with cooperating with Iran Chamber of Commerce and helping cooperation of the SMEs of the two parties,” he added.
He noted that the EU is tired of wars in Iraq and Syria and does not want to worsen the situation in the region.
“The EU cannot tolerate more chaos, insecurity and war in the Middle East,” Soltani said.
On Monday, EU countries gave European firms legal cover to operate in Iran despite the US pullout from the nuclear deal, after a report that the Trump administration has rejected calls by Brussels for an exemption from sanctions.
The bloc's foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said on Monday the 28 countries were doing all they could to save the deal but conceded President Donald Trump's administration could still wreck it.
US President Donald Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in May, and Washington now plans to reimpose sanctions on Tehran next month.
"Today, the (European) Council has endorsed the update of the blocking statute annex on the nuclear deal with Iran," Mogherini told reporters in Brussels at a meeting with EU foreign ministers.
She said the European Parliament gave its consent to the statute two weeks ago.
The "blocking statute" forbids EU firms from complying with US sanctions, allowing them to recover damages from such penalties and nullifying any foreign court rulings against them.
The EU vowed to fight to preserve the Iran nuclear deal after the US withdrawal, one of many points of US-European contention.
The blocking statute is due to enter force on August 6, when the first set of US sanctions are due. The second set is due November 4, just before US legislative elections.
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