Germany economy minister heads to Iran

German Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel flies to Iran Sunday as the first top Western official to visit the country since world powers and Tehran reached a historic nuclear deal.

Gabriel, who is also Chancellor Angela Merkel’s deputy leader and energy minister, embarked on the three-day trip with a “small delegation of representatives from companies, industry groups and the sciences,” his ministry says in a statement.

Gabriel is due to hold talks with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and several ministers following Tuesday’s landmark nuclear agreement.

The long-delayed pact “lays the foundation for normalizing economic ties with Iran on the condition that the steps set out in it are now implemented,” Gabriel says in the statement.

The head of the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Eric Schweitzer, who is accompanying Gabriel, calls the trip “an encouraging sign” for companies barred from doing business with the resources-rich Gulf state due to Western sanctions.

Schweitzer calls for German companies to be given legal protection for upcoming investments made in Iran in case Tehran violated the terms of the nuclear deal and a trade embargo were imposed again.

“Such a framework would give companies the necessary legal security to return to Iran,” he tells DPA news agency.

Iran and Germany were historically close trade partners but business dropped off as a result of the sanctions, declining to 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) last year from around eight billion euros in 2003-2004, according to German figures.

— AFP