Dutch embassy to serve as EU office in Tehran
The EU first diplomatic delegation will be sent to Tehran in the near future, the EU Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini said.
In a visit which follows last year's historic nuclear deal with the Islamic Republic, Mogherini, heading a high-ranking political and economic delegation comprised of seven European commissioners arrived in Tehran, Apr. 16 and held talks with senior Iranian officials. Opening an EU office in Tehran was on the agenda of the mutual talks.
"We have decided to send first team that will be operating with the support and the help of the current presidency of the European Union, Netherlands," Mogherini said.
The mission of the future EU delegation would be mainly supporting and sustaining all the work that, the parties decided to start on re-launching dialogue and cooperation on many different sectors, she added.
Mogherini further said that the EU plans to develop dialogues on energy, economy and business presence in Iran as well as technology or transport.
"Having a presence in Tehran would be helpful to develop the cooperation in a structured way, and also would provide a support for all the business, companies and also the financial European sector that is willing to engage in Iran, providing a framework for the European engagement in the country from a technical point of view," she said.
While responding to a question about resuming banking ties with Iran, the EU diplomat said that there is no reason for European banks not to come to Iran.
"we are working very hard with all the European banks, with the financial sector in Europe to, first of all, explain that the situation has changed, as the 16th of January and all the economic and financial sanctions that were related to the nuclear program have been lifted," she said.
So the banks and the financial sector in Europe are facing a completely different situation, the top EU diplomat added.
"We have provided them with full information about the change of the situation," she said, adding the big banks maybe need a little bit of time to adjust to the new situation and adapt to the new situation, however the small banks, are coming in Iran already.
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