BAKU – Iran is seeking to “restart” its relations with the European Union and the United States in an effort to get back into the political and diplomatic arena and find markets for its abundant hydrocarbon resources, Hassan Ghafourifard, Iran’s former minister of energy, former member of parliament and former vice president under Hashemi Rafsanjani from 1981-1995, told New Europe in Baku on 10 October. He was in Azerbaijan to monitor the former Soviet republic’s presidential elections.
“I think a new era has been started with the new president and as you know he talked with [US President Barack] Obama after 35 years. So the ice is melting. The atmosphere will be much better,” Ghafourifard said.
Late last month, Obama spoke with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, the first communication between an American and Iranian President since 1979.
The two leaders discussed ongoing efforts to reach an agreement over Iran’s nuclear programme.
Obama said in a statement that while “success is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive solution”.
“I’ve directed Secretary [of State John] Kerry to continue pursuing this diplomatic effort with the Iranian government. We had constructive discussions yesterday in New York with our partners — the European Union, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia and China — together with the Iranian Foreign Minister,” Obama said. “And throughout this process, we’ll stay in close touch with our friends and allies in the region, including Israel,” he added.
Ghafourifard said Rouhani gave a new message trying to mend ties. “We don’t want to have the enmity between Iran and the other countries so we are trying to improve our diplomatic relations with other countries, including the United States. Of course with Israel we don’t have relations. Besides Israel any other country we’ll have good relations,” Ghafourifard quipped.
He noted that Iran is one of the world’s biggest oil and gas producers. “We’re the second in gas reserves and third in oil reserves. We’re the second in the world next to Russia. We have to sell this gas and oil to other countries. We don’t want to consume it all for ourselves. So we have to have relations with other countries,” he said.
He said that Iran is also eyeing the Asian market. With Azerbaijan he sees future co-operation in oil swapping and electricity.
He noted that former Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad had only relations with South America or maybe some African countries. “But this time the president went to the UN and talked to most of the European countries and said we will restart the relations with the British. They’ll have their embassy in Iran and we’ll have our embassy in London so with all the countries which are in the UN, European countries, the United States, Japan, we’ll have better relations,” Ghafourifard said.
However, he said Iran will not abandon its nuclear programme. “Iran is using nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and our leaderships have said we will never make a nuclear bomb. So use the nuclear energy for peaceful purposes and we’re ready to open up the sites for the international observers to see that we are only using that for peaceful purposes,” he claimed.
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