YEREVAN, JULY 20, ARMENPRESS.
Mr Mohammad Raiesi, the ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran assures that the negotiations between Iran and the 6 major powers will get registered in the history of world diplomacy, it will be taught at schools and it’ll serve a good example for international conflict resolutions. In his interview with Armenpress, the ambassador Raiesi also talked about the future of Iran-West relations and the importance of Armenian-Iranian big projects.

“Mr Ambassador, a historic agreement was signed in Vienna which is called by many analysts the agreement of the century.”

“Any event taking place in any country can be a turning point and a historical reality for that country. This agreement which was signed in Lausanne, then in Vienna can be considered a historical one.  For years, the West did everything to hurt Iran and by hurting Iran, the East also suffered losses.  The agreement between Iran and the 6 world powers is important in many aspects.

First of all, Iran, not complying with the demands, resisted and overcoming many difficulties finally was able to reach an agreement with the other sides. Secondly, the worst and the most difficult problem can be solved through negotiations. Probably no one could imagine that such a serious problem could be solved by means of negotiations. Thus, these negotiations will get registered in the history of world diplomacy, it will be taught at schools and it’ll serve a good example for international conflict resolutions

 As a result of this agreement, The United Nations Security Council’s 7 resolutions  and the sanctions against Iran are cancelled and the right of uranium enrichment and nuclear research is officially entitled to Iran. The West claims that Iran made certain concessions in producing nuclear weapons in the case that Iran never had any aim of producing it. I hope that other international conflicts will be solved in this way.

 “There’s a viewpoint in Armenia that big Armenian-Iranian projects that require serious financial investments are not brought to life because of Western sanctions. Do you agree with this viewpoint?”

“Yes. I am of the opinion that if there were no sanctions, the projects would have been realized. One of the widely discussed projects is the construction of Armenia-Iran railway. The President of the Republic of Armenia spoke about the importance of the construction of the railway during the meeting at Ufa last week. What can we expect from this project? ”

“The project has a regional significance and in case of its realization Armenia will become a regional transit corridor between the Black Sea and the Persian Gulf.

Transfers will be conducted to northern countries through Armenia from the southern neighbors of East Asia and Iran. It will become a north-south corridor. Goods from India, Pakistan will be transited through Armenia, including Europe. The project needs considerable investments. If there is a company, which wants to implement the project, it will be very good. For one part of the project (from Meghri to Sevan) 3 billion 200 million US dollars are needed. We have announced for so many times that if there is an investor to allocate funds for the Armenian part of the project, we are ready to built up to 60 kilometers in our part. Like the President of the Republic of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan, I agree that this project is very important.

“Mr. Ambassador, what are the Armenian-Iranian economic relations today? Is the growth of the trade turnover visible during the recent years?”

“Notwithstanding the high level of the political relations between the two countries, the economic ties are considerably behind. It was intended that the trade turnover reaches 1 billion US dollars, but it does not exceed 300 million. One of the reasons for that are the laws. We should smooth these issues and facilitate the conditions to help the businessmen of the two countries to implement their businesses comfortably. There are countries with which Iran signed an agreement on preferential tariffs and statistics shows that after the signing of these agreements, the economic relations and the trade turnover developed immediately. There are some very important issues in the trade. One of them is the simplification of the laws and transparency. The customs laws should be transparent. Iran has correlated with Armenia for 22 years, though till now we do not have an agreement on preferential tariffs. If Armenia and Iran also sign a visa-free regime agreement, it will also help developing tourism.”

“ The year of 2015 is very important for Armenia. We were commemorating the centennial of the Armenian Genocide. Iran is among the countries, which has not yet officially recognized the Armenian Genocide. Why?”

“ We always honor the memory of the victims and on April 24 the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran attended the commemoration event in Yerevan. We respect the memory of the victims. We always condemn the massacre of innocent people”

“ When do we expect the visit of the President Hassan Rouhani to Armenia?”

“We hope and are consistent that the visit takes place this year. Certainly, I cannot now say the concrete time. Works are carried out in this direction. In the nearest future the visit of the First Vice President to Armenia is expected and after that we will be consistent for the visit of Mr. Rouhani.”