Ali Larijani, Iran’s Parliament Speaker, held talks with Andrä Rupprechter, Austrian Federal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management, in Tehran on Tuesday.
During the meeting, Larijani maintained that Iran-Austria’s cooperation on industries and rail transport is highly significant, saying Iran’s priorities for foreign investment at the moment lies in the fields of energy, oil, gas and pharmaceuticals.
Larijani further touched upon the still unresolved issue of Nabucco pipeline project, a proposed natural gas pipeline from the Turkish-Bulgarian border to Austria, saying “due to sanctions against Iran, the project remained mostly dormant, but now that the sanctions are lifted following the implementation of the nuclear deal, the condition has been provided to pursue the project once again.”
The Nabucco-West pipeline running through Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and Austria aims to diversify the natural gas suppliers and delivery routes for Europe. Iran has proposed to supply gas to Nabucco pipeline and this was backed by Turkey and Turkmenistan; however, due to the political conditions and the sanctions this was rejected by the EU and the United States.
Larijani also referred to various environmental issues in Iran, saying “some of these issues are caused by outside factors such as the haze coming from Iraq and Saudi Arabia. We have held numerous talks with these countries to resolve the issue but so far no agreement has been reached between us.”
Elsewhere, Larijani talked about the issue of terrorism, stressing Austria and the EU must arrive at a single formula in fighting terrorism; “Muslims from Shias to Sunnis to Alawites have different beliefs and religions but all are against terrorists. There is only one small faction called ‘Wahhabis' who support terrorism and they are by no means related to Islam.”
Rupprechter, for his part, congratulated Iran on its highly successful elections, expressing hope that with the new Parliament in Iran, the two countries could maintain their close cooperation.
“We signed an environmental MoU with Iran consisting cooperation on climate, protection of water and rivers, national and natural parks management as well as the two countries’ fund for environment,” said Rupprechter, adding the memorandum would be ready for final stage by the time President Rouhani would visit Austria.
He also added that industrial cooperation such as Nabucco pipeline project is highly significant for Austria’s economy.
Andrä Rupprechter Austrian Federal Minister of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management arrived in Iran to attend the 15th International Environment Exhibition on Monday.
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