Alwaght- Iran's Foreign Minister Hussein Amir-Abdollahian arrived in Qatar on Tuesday as part of a tour of Persian Gulf.
A diplomatic delegation is accompanying him in his tour. After Qatar, he visited Oman, and plans to visit Kuwait and the UAE, too.
IRNA news agency reported that the visit to Doha came at the invitation of Qatar counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.
The foreign ministry of Iran published a statement on the goals of the tour, saying that he will discuss common interests in bilateral, regional, and international fields.
In a tweet, Amir-Abdollahian wrote: “Continuing comprehensive development of relations with neighboring countries is one of the main pillars of the balanced foreign policy theory adopted by the Iranian government.”
He further said: “To strengthen ties and follow up the decisions in exchanged visits of senior officials, I'm traveling to Qatar and Oman.... Iran's neighbors have many capabilities in economic, political, and Trade areas.”
Trade talks in Qatar
Amir-Abdollahian’s visit to Qatar follows a visit to Doha of the Governor of Central Bank, Mohammad Reza Farzin last week with the aim of strengthening monetary, banking, and economic cooperation and consultations with the Arab country’s officials.
Having held close political and economic ties in recent years, Iran and Qatar are seeking to expand their partnership. This issue especially took a top priority in the policy of the administration of President Seyyed Ibrahim Raisi. Earlier, Adnan Mousapour, the head of Iran-Qatar Joint Chamber of Commerce had talked about a 45-percent increase in the trade volume with Qatar over the past two years.
According to Mousapour, their trade volume in 2021 was $143 million and in 2022, it grew to be $208 million.
Iranian officials have announced that they are looking to further strengthen the volume of trade with Qatar in the coming years. In April, Farzad Piltan, director general of the Iran Trade Development Organization in West Asia, said that Tehran is seeking to increase the volume of trade with Qatar to $3 billion by 2025.
According to the spokesman of Iran's Customs, cement, vegetables, crops, pistachio and saffron are the Iranian goods exported to Qatar. Chemicals, car parts, and electric appliances are the Iranian imports from Qatar.
In last year's negotiations between Iranian and Qatari officials, several important cases were discussed, including boost of commercial infrastructure, especially in the field of facilitating the marine transportation, and as a result of these negotiations, nine rounds of the Iran-Qatar Joint Economic Cooperation Commission have been held so far. Iran-Qatar Business Forum was initiated in 2018, which, according to Iranian officials, acts as an economic embassy in the host country.
Meanwhile, one of the most important issues in business cooperation with Qatar is the return of Iranian money and attraction of Qatar investments.
In Farzin’s visit to Doha, he met with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Bandar Bin Mohammad Al Thani, and both sides discussed and stressed the need to develop trade exchanges between Iran and Qatar through increasing banking, financial, and monetary cooperation.
Eyes on Muscat; diplomacy in news silence
Amir-Abdollahian is now in Muscat, triggering speculations among regional and international media outlets about his main agenda in Oman. Over the past years, the Arab sultanate has been a key mediator between Tehran and Washington concerning nuclear program.
After visit to Iran of Sultan of Oman Haitham bin Tarik to Tehran last month, a set of developments took place like release of Iranian diplomat, Assadullah Assadi, imprisoned in Belgium for unfounded claims and also unfreezing Iranian money in Iraq. Some also speculated that the Omani Sultan carried a message from the US.
Doha was also a mediator between Tehran and Washington in efforts to revive the nuclear deal.
Given the past role of Qatar and Oman in nuclear case, Al-Arabi Al-Jadid reported that this visit goes beyond bilateral ties and will focus on regional cases between Iran and the US. The Arab-language media also claimed that the Iranian FM is carrying Tehran's response to the American message.
The special focus of the media and experts on the issue of possible negotiations between Iran and the US comes while news about a possible deal add to the speculations. For example, Iran's Economy Minister Ehsan Khandozi announced last week in a conversation with home media about measures taken by the foreign ministry and the central bank about the release the country's blocked money abroad.
Despite all these media speculations, the American officials, without denying talks with Iran in Muscat, dismissed reports about reaching a deal with Iran.
Asked about indirect talks with Tehran through Oman, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said: “With regard to Iran, some of the reports that we've seen about an agreement on nuclear matters or, for that matter, on detainees, are simply not accurate and not true.”
