IRANIAN OFFICIAL: "The sanctions against Iran also affect the European Union"

The sanctions which the European Union is applying to Iran are not only affecting Iran, by the EU itself as well, as its trading partner, says Javad Amin-Mansour, the head of the Department for Trade Negotiations and Energy of the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. "Iran is interested in cooperating with the European Union in the energy sector, as it considers that closeness in this sector is mutually beneficial", the official said, in a conference which presents Iran's point of view on the EU and the Middle East.

As a member of the organization of petroleum exporting countries (OPEC) and of the forum of natural gas producing countries (GEFC), Iran is making efforts to promote a better coordination of the global energy policies, said Javad Amin-Mansour, who went on to say: "We want to stabilize the global energy market, to contribute to increasing its stability and predictability. In that regard, we are investing in developing the production capabilities for renewable and nuclear energy, to reduce reliance on fossil fuel".

Cooperation between Iran and the European Union in the energy sector has a great potential, not just in the conventional areas of the sector, but also when it comes to the production of solar energy, given the fact that Iran's territory has a desert part as big as France, the official in Tehran said.

In January 2012, the EU council decided to impose an embargo on Iran's oil exports, to freeze the assets of the Central Bank in Tehran and to stop the trade of precious metals and petrochemical products with the Asian country.

However, Iran wasn't a major supplier of oil for the European Union before the embargo, which is why it would be hard to believe that this will play an important part in the security strategy of the EU, says Georghe Angliţoiu, associate professor at the National School for Political and Administrative Sciences (SNSPA).

The Iranian embassy in Bucharest and the Political and Economic Institute of the Middle East (MEPEI), led by discharged general Sergiu Medar, former presidential advisor for defense and national security, organized the international conference "The European Union and the Middle East- The Iranian Points of View", which was attended by several Iranian officials and was held on the 23rd and 24th of October.