A 70-member Delegation of EU Officials and Economic Activists to Visit Iran

Tasnim News Agency reports that a 70-member delegation of officials and economic activists from the European Union will travel to Tehran on Saturday, November 20, with one of the topics of discussion being the establishment of an EU office in Iran. The news agency announced on Friday that this delegation includes 25 'high-ranking' officials, although it did not specify their positions. Besides these officials, other members of the delegation are economic activists in the fields of agriculture, food industries, and rural development. Phil Hogan, the EU Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, is leading the delegation, which will meet with Mahmoud Hojjati, the Minister of Agriculture, Masoud Khansari, the President of the Tehran Chamber of Commerce, and members of the Chamber of Commerce. Following the Vienna nuclear agreement, several economic delegations from various EU countries have visited Iran. Meanwhile, Ali Tayebnia, the former Minister of Economy, announced last July that approximately $45 billion in financing contracts had been signed with various countries. However, despite the lifting of nuclear sanctions, some European banks are cautious in their dealings with Iran. For instance, last year, the Royal Bank of Scotland stated that it did not accept the pressures from the British government, a major shareholder in the bank, to encourage transactions with Iran, as it still considers dealings with the country to be risky. Major European banks, including those in France and Germany, have paid millions and sometimes billions of dollars in fines to the United States over their banking relations with Iran in recent years. Additionally, Tasnim News Agency reported that there are serious obstacles to exporting agricultural products to Europe, such as money transfer issues and customs tariffs. According to this news agency, 'if the negotiations yield positive results, the promise of establishing an EU office in Iran has been raised, which would facilitate and expedite exports to this continent.' Majid Takht-Ravanchi, Deputy Foreign Minister, stated last November that the EU had sent two representatives to the Dutch embassy in Tehran to proceed with the office's opening. According to Mr. Takht-Ravanchi, the EU has embassies and representative offices in 140 countries, and now that Iran and the EU's relations have 'entered a new cooperative space,' a new organization is needed for planning and coordination. This issue has sparked negative reactions from some hardliners and appointees of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic, including Mohammad Javad Larijani, the Secretary of the Human Rights Headquarters of the Judiciary, who stated that the Iranian judiciary would not allow such a thing. In this context, Iran's insistence on 'red lines' such as retribution in negotiations with Europe, the objections of Friday prayer leaders in Iran to the potential opening of the EU office in Tehran, and the unwritten unity between Hassan Rouhani and the EU are significant.