Oil, gas and Iran nuclear impasse: Can business deals sway Trump’s calculus?
As Iran-US nuclear negotiations continue, Tehran has been pushing the idea of striking business deals rather than military sites, with proposals spanning oil and gas to aviation.
WASHINGTON — As US-Iran nuclear negotiations have played out amid mutual saber-rattling in February, Tehran has trotted out a fresh pitch for President Donald Trump: business, not bombs.
On Feb. 20, Oil Minister Mohsen Paknejad stated that cooperation between Tehran and Washington in the oil and gas sector was possible in light of ongoing negotiations, the semi-official Tansim News Agency reported. Asked about the odds of energy collaboration, Paknejad said, “Everything is possible.”
The minister’s comments came right after the latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks in Geneva on Feb. 17. Ahead of the negotiations, Iran was busily signaling potential for business deals as part of efforts to win sanctions relief and avert new US strikes as the Trump administration continued massing forces in the Middle East.
During an Iran Chamber of Commerce meeting on Feb. 15, Hamid Ghanbari, deputy minister for economic diplomacy with the Foreign Ministry, said that “common interests” in oil and gas, mining investments and airplane purchases were included in the negotiation framework and argued that any deal should deliver economic returns.
