Baku, Azerbaijan, Nov.20
By Elnur Baghishov, Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
If Iran used its geographical position properly, it would avoid the US sanctions, according to Deputy Head of Iran-China joint Chamber of Commerce Majid-Reza Hariri.
“Iran doesn’t fully use its geographical potential. Instead of building plants in the central regions of the country, it would be more useful to build airports, railways, ports and thereby turn the country into one of the main trade routes. In this case, it wouldn’t be so easy to impose sanctions on Iran,” he told ILNA.
Iran is one of the rare countries which unites north and south or east and west and is the best route for connecting different countries, he said.”At the same time, many countries would like to have the water borders which Iran has. Iran can enter the world ocean through the Gulf of Oman.”
Hariri went on to add that of course, Iran is one of the countries with many neighbors.
“The country has 15 neighbors, however, it has problems with 70-80 percent of them. The major condition of trade is to create beneficial ties with other countries and Iran’s doesn’t have good relations with its neighboring countries,” he said.
Hariri noted that Iran doesn’t have relations with such rich countries as Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.
Iran should put aside its problems with neighboring countries and build close ties with them, otherwise, it will face very negative consequences, he noted.
US President Donald Trump declared Washington’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal with Iran in May 2018. Trump also announced the restoration of all sanctions against Iran, including secondary ones against other countries doing business with Iran. The United States re-introduced part of the sanctions against Iran on August 7, while the second batch of the sanctions came into effect on Nov.5.
The US government has agreed to let eight countries, including South Korea and Japan, as well as India, keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes sanctions on Tehran. The waivers have been granted for six months.