TEHRAN, Iran, Jan.7
Trend:
Iran's plan to choose China and Russia as alternatives for trading with European countries during sanctions, is practical to some extent, professor at Shahid Beheshti University Mohsen Shariatinia told Trend.
"We are living in a financial global system, unfortunately the US is dominant in it. The logic of companies are different from governments, they avoid to take risk and their calculations are purely economic," he said.
Shariatinia went on to mention such companies as China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), Gazprom, Siemens, Renault, saying that such companies do not take risks and are afraid to be punished by the US, and aren't to loose the global financial system.
"The question is how to attract big companies back to working with Iran," Shariatinia said.
"Asian and European governments are pressuring their companies in terms of working with Iran and don't want to take risks, there is no particular difference between China and Germany in this regard, therefore the issue is complicated," he said.
"In the global economy, Iran is facing companies, not governments, and they're scared of the US," said Shariatinia.
"At the moment the government inclination is not important since there not many options left on the table and the only country that can purchase some oil from Iran is China. In this situation, small and medium sized companies of China and India are the ones that are open for trade with Iran. in this situation Iran's preference has no meaning and we are forced to work with them," he said.
Shariatinia pointed out that if Iran's activity on international level remains limited, it would have irreversible damage for the country's economy.
"For example Iran has lost major part of its oil markets due to re-impose of sanctions. Our share in Chinese oil market was 13 percent in 2005, currently it is less than 4 percent while other countries specially Russia have replaced us, it is one example of massive losses," he added.