The talks on implementation of Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) concluded in Vienna on Saturday, and the US and the European Union lifted sanctions imposed on Iran for years.

Talking to IRNA, Eugenio Carugati said Italy and Iran enjoy many cultural commonalities that can help enhance bilateral relations.

About his travel to Iran, he said it is happening for the first time and is aimed to examine the Iranian market.

In line with widening Iran-Italy trade exchange, Italy’s second international exclusive fair held in Tehran on January 10-13.

Italy has been among those countries which kept its relations with Iran continued during the sanctions’ era.

According to its website, Genius Car Ltd is a holding company based in London with ownership of various companies in the technological and innovation area, including Italian Covini Engineering.

Covini Engineering has been developing for many years innovative automotive projects including the COVINI C3A as a luxury road car and the COVINI Speedster built for the sports car circuits. Both utilize the 3 axis and 6 wheel design.

India will also be able to release payments its state-owned refineries owed to Tehran for crude oil purchases that were held up because of international sanctions, around $6.5 billion, Hindustantimes wrote.

The sanctions were lifted after the International Atomic Energy Agency certified on Saturday – Implementation Day – that Iran had completed its part of the agreement with western powers.

Under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the agreement was called, Iran has shipped out of country 25,000 pounds of enriched uranium, cutting its stockpile by 98%.

It has removed two-thirds of its centrifuges, and filled the core Arak Heavy Water Research Reactor with concrete, eliminating its potential source of weapons-grade plutonium.

And, Iran has allowed IAEA inspectors, who will for the first time be equipped with modern safeguard technologies, unprecedented access to its nuclear facilities and supply chain.

The US and Iran also announced on Saturday a swap of prisoners under which Washington Post journalist Jason Rezaian headed home to freedom after 18 months in jail.

Expressing his interest in cooperation with IRISL, Zeno D’Agostino, the head of Italy’s ports and shipping organization, stated that the volume of Iran-Italy trade will increase, and Trieste port will play a paramount role in Iran-Italy trade, according to IRISL official website.

Noting that Trieste Port transported 75 million tons of cargo and 0.5 million TEU containers in 2015, he said that with its exclusive container port, the Italian port offers the investors two opportunities for terminal operations and for bunkering.

This port possesses the top rank among the petroleum ports worldwide, D’Agostino said.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Saeedi, the chairman of the board and director of Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines enumerated the capabilities and the capacities of IRISL, and the conditions and the qualities of IRISL’s activities during the sanctions era.

He also deemed the post-sanction conditions as a golden opportunity for shipping lines to expand their ties and extend their activities.

With the lifting of the sanctions, the IRISL fleet is fully prepared to transport, import and export goods to and from European ports directly, Saeedi said.

Moreover, he referred to the fact that IRISL possesses the largest bulk fleet, stressing that currently, Iran exports various petroleum products to Europe, through re-exporting from Turkey.

He speculated that the Iran-Europe cooperation in the post-sanction era will reach an approximate turnover of 10 billion Euros.

In the course of the meeting, both parties emphasized the capabilities of joint activities in the fields of container transportation and fuel with the lifting of the sanctions.

He made the remarks in a meeting with Czech Republic Minister of Industry and Trade Jan Mladek here on Monday.
Zangeneh said that exporting gas to Czech Republic by pipe is not possible now, but considering Iran has an incomplete unit of LNG, the Czech side may sign a long-term contract with Iran for importing Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) or cooperate in its investment.
He also expressed Iran’s interest for cooperation with Czech Republic in the sector of underground reservation of gas considering its capabilities and continuation of negotiation in this field.
Zangeneh underlined that Czech companies may have cooperation with Iran as investors and not contractors.
He added that Czech Republic is strong industrially and is able to cooperate with Iran in manufacturing oil equipment.
Czech companies can cooperate with Iranian companies in transferring technology, manufacturing goods and equipment of oil industry and also investing in the petrochemical industry.
Based on the statistics available, volume of trade exchange between Iran and the Czech Republic in the first five months of the year (Iranian calendar) stands at 12.300 million dollars.
Iran’s export to Czech Republci stood at 2.300 million dollars and its imports from the Republic was 10 million dollars in value in the five months.

Daimler said Monday it has signed letters of intent with local partners Iran Khodro Diesel and Mammut Group to arrange a “comprehensive re-entry” into the country.
“We plan to quickly resume our business activities in the market there,” Daimler Trucks head Wolfgang Bernhard said.
Daimler had an established jurisdiction in Iran, with a business dating back to the 1950s, where it sold up to 10,000 vehicles a year, before sanctions obliterated it.
“The areas of cooperation include a joint venture for local production of Mercedes-Benz trucks and powertrain components plus the establishment of a sales company for Mercedes-Benz trucks and components,” it said in a statement.
Plans include setting up a representative office, and sales of Daimler’s Mitsubishi FUSO brand trucks in cooperation with Mayan, part of the Dubai-based Mammut Group.
Iran Khodro Diesel is a subsidiary of Iran Khodro Industrial Group, the largest vehicle manufacturer in the Middle East and North Africa region, having more than 50-percent market share in Iran.
Daimler said it also planned “to return as a shareholder in the former engine joint venture Iranian Diesel Engine Manufacturing Co. (IDEM).”
The German company intends to buy 30% of shares which it had sold in IDEM in order to build diesel engines.
Daimler said there was “high pent-up demand in the Iranian truck market.” The company estimates that Iran needs to replace 56,000 commercial vehicles over the next three to five years.
The Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade estimated that about 200,000 commercial vehicles would be replaced in the coming years.
“With its growth potential following many years of sanctions and the pent-up demand in the transport sector, Iran offers promising opportunities for Daimler Trucks,” it said.
Despite the sanctions, Iran was one of the largest national economies in the Middle East, with a GDP of $415 billion in 2014 where industry accounted for almost half of the economy, the German company said.
German exports to double
On Sunday, German officials said they expect a steep rise in exports to Iran as Economy Minister Sigmar Gabriel said he would visit Tehran in early May to drum up trade.
Germany’s Chambers of Commerce and Industry (DIHK) said it expected exports to Iran to double to 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) in the coming years and reach twice that figure in the long term.
“German companies have lost important market share in Iran. We must revive German-Iranian ties as quickly as possible,” DIHK head Volker Treier said.
Gabriel said the revival of trade “gives us the opportunity to open a new chapter in German-Iranian trade ties.”
Last week, Siemens signed deals to work on Iran’s railway infrastructure. The VDMA engineering trade group plans to open an office in Tehran in the first half of this year to help companies sell machinery in Iran. (Press TV)

Late on Saturday, the European Union, the United Nations and the United States lifted sanctions on Iran, opening the door to closer EU-Iran energy cooperation, Reuters reported.
The EU executive is particularly keen to develop Iranian supplies as an alternative to Russia, whose powerful role as a source of around a third of EU oil and gas has divided the bloc.
‘A first technical assessment mission in the field of energy to Iran will take place at the beginning of February,’ Arias Canete said in a statement. An EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said around 15 EU representatives would go on the initial four-day technical visit and after that, a high-level commission staff, possibly with a business delegation, would travel to Iran. Arias Canete said potential areas for cooperation included all energy sectors—nuclear, oil, gas, renewable energy and energy efficiency.
In particular, he mentioned developing liquefied natural gas and also pipeline shipments through a route the European Union refers to as the ‘Southern Gas Corridor’ to carry supplies into southern Europe as an alternative to Russian gas.
Since Moscow’s seizure of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014, EU tensions over reliance on Russian energy have escalated.
German firms have joined a project to double the amount of Russian gas shipped directly to Germany, bypassing Urkaine, drawing fierce opposition from countries such as Poland.

Talking to reporters, Seif said the fall in the expenditures will help the home-made goods competitive.
He said Iranian economic activists should work in the international communities easily.
He said that on Sunday, that was the first day of the JCPOA implementation, the CBI decided to transfer part of its blocked assets from several banks to several other banks. Part of the transfers were possible, while certain others are not yet announced due to closure of European banks on the day.
He said following elimination of sanctions and the JCPOA implementation, $32 billion worth blocked forex assets of Iran will be released: 28 billion dollars out of the total belong to the CBI and four billion dollars are for government, that will be changed into rial and deposited into the treasury.

The announcement was made by the Spanish foreign minister on Monday, just two days after sanctions against Islamic Republic were lifted, Reuters reported.
Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo said he hoped the planned refinery, which would be built in the southern port city of Algeciras with local Spanish firms, would be the first of many deals between the two countries in the post-sanctions era.
On Saturday, Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and European Union’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, announced during a joint press conference in Vienna the beginning of the implementation of a nuclear deal reached by Iran and six world powers in the Austrian capital, Vienna, last July. The announcement came after the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released its latest report confirming Tehran’s compliance with its commitment as per the nuclear agreement, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
According to a statement read out by Zarif and Mogherini, ‘UN sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme are lifted. United Nations Security Council resolution 2231 (2015), which endorsed the JCPOA, will from now onwards, together with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT), be the sole international legal framework related to Iran’s nuclear activities, terminating provisions of resolutions 1696 (2006), 1737 (2007), 1747 (2007), 1803 (2008), 1835 (2008), 1929 (2010) and 2224 (2015).’
Margallo told reporters in Brussels that the Iranian energy industry needs restructuring after its return to the international economy, adding that Spain was well placed to assist.
‘What we see here is a new chance for the region to stabilize and for our companies to secure good business opportunities,’ Margallo said before a meeting of EU foreign ministers, adding, ‘Our political relationship with Iran is very good because we moved faster than other countries and are now very well placed for future business.’
The Spanish minister also stated that an Iranian refinery in Algeciras would boost employment in a region that has the highest unemployment rate in Spain.
Last November, Abbas Kazemi, deputy oil minister and managing director of the National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company (NIORDC), was quoted by Iranian media as saying that the country was mulling a plan to build or buy refineries in other countries in order to guarantee long-term sale of its crude oil.
He noted that investing in overseas refineries is one of the most common ways used by oil producing countries to boost crude exports, saying, “Therefore, the Iranian Oil Ministry is planning to invest in refineries in countries whose crude oil is being supplied by Iran.”
At present, some littoral states of the Persian Gulf, which are among world’s major oil exporters, own a remarkable number of oil refineries in American, European and Asian countries, which has greatly increased their clout in global energy markets.
Iran has likewise received proposals for buying or building overseas refineries in Asian, European, African and American countries, none of which has been finalized yet.

‘Lifting the sanctions against Iran, on the one hand, it may contribute to the development of Russian-Iranian cooperation in energy, agriculture, defense industry and other areas, and thus have a positive impact on the economies of both countries,’ the official said.

On January 16, the UN, EU, US lifted economic and financial restrictions against Iran that were imposed due to the Iranian nuclear program.

Such a move would be a reversal of the foreign policy set by the previous Tory administration, which had vowed to keep its sanctions regime against Iran after a preliminary deal on the Islamic republic’s nuclear program in 2013.

Trudeau said Iran had made ‘significant movement towards respecting international expectations’ regarding its nuclear program, Western media reported.

‘That is something positive and I expect there will be (diplomatic) links now between Canada and Iran,’ he said.

‘We will certainly be discussing that further at a cabinet meeting in the coming weeks,’ he added, according to the AFP report.

Canada broke diplomatic ties with Iran in September 2012.

At the time, then foreign affairs minister John Baird did not cite a specific incident for the breakdown in relations but issued a strongly worded attack.

In July, Iran and global powers reached a deal in Vienna that saw sanctions lifted this weekend.

On Sunday, Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion told the Globe and Mail newspaper that Ottawa would decide ‘in a timely fashion’ whether to also lift sanctions in order to allow Canadian companies to join US and EU firms rushing to do business in Iran.

‘Because if other countries move before us, it’s not a way to help our industry,’ he said, adding that Canadian sanctions alone would not be very effective.