Iranian and Italian officials in a meeting in Rome on Thursday underlined the need for the expansion of bilateral ties, especially in trade fields.
During the meeting, Iran’s Ambassador to Rome Jahanbakhsh Mozaffari and a group of traders of Italy’s Bari province explored avenues for bolstering and reinvigorating mutual cooperation between the two countries’ private sectors, FNA reported.
Italian traders voiced their readiness at the meeting to expand trade cooperation with their Iranian counterparts. They called for exchange of visits between the two sides’ trade delegations, and said, “The grounds are now prepared for expansion of commercial and trade cooperation between the two nations.”
The Iranian ambassador, for his part, said that the landscape for cooperation between the two sides is quite promising.
In early May, Iranian and Italian parliamentarians vowed to help boost ties between the two sides. In a meeting between Co-Chairman of Iran-Italy parliamentary friendship group Javad Heravi and Ettore Rosato, head of the Democratic Party at Italy’s Chamber of Deputies in Tehran, the two sides vowed to do their best to enhance bilateral relations.
Earlier this week, Italian investors traveled to Iran to survey industrial opportunities in the country, including those in Kerman province, to negotiation investment opportunities in machineries if western sanctions having intensified since 2010 against Iran’s economy are lifted. The head of delegation, Gino Tessari, said the anti-Iran sanctions and propaganda have made it difficult to persuade foreign investors to come and invest in the country.
Iran is now negotiating with the US, Britain, Germany, France, Russia and China over its nuclear energy program. There are negotiators from both sides expressing hope that the nuclear talks will eventually lead to a comprehensive deal addressing a decade-long dispute.
