The official made the remarks asserting that the favorable moment will not be everlasting since disputes might be resolved in the near future hence the need to quickly seize the golden opportunity in favor of the Iranian economy.
“The new circumstances for Qatar put the world is a shock since it came without prior notice while Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Egypt, unexpectedly announced the cut is diplomatic ties with Qatar.”
Lahuti said regardless of its impact on Qatar’s diplomatic relations with regional countries, the incident can offer exceptional merits for economy of Iran since Qatar is one of the richest and most influential regional countries; “lack of direct contacts with Qatar and imposition of sanctions can affect its economy; nonetheless, as also stated by FM Zarif, the issue needs to be resolved through negotiation and diplomacy.”
Lahuti went on to explain economic dimensions of the cut in ties of Arabic countries with Qatar saying “economically speaking, the issue can mark a major one for the regional countries including Iran because Qataris import 4-5 billion dollars of food products from Saudi Arabia and UAE each year; on the other hand, Iran possesses the potential to supply Qatar’s food demands besides the fact that the Arab state is to Iran and three Iranian ports, including Bandar Abbas, Lengeh and Bushehr, can deploy goods to Qatar within less than 12 hours.”
The official said the halt in diplomatic ties can therefore bring about a boom in Iran’s exports and grounds are prepared for development of ties between Iran and Qatar; “in the present conditions, Qataris need not worry since powerful Iran is on their side,” Lahuti emphasized.
Head of Exports Confederation said, after UAE, Qatar is the second largest regional country in terms of infrastructure, ports and transit and can turn into Iran’s first economic partner.
Mohammad Lahuti recalled that the same opportunity had emerged for Iran a year and a half ago in the case of Russia but it was lost since we were unfamiliar with their market and lacked its required facilities.
“The case of Qatar is however different since the two sides are culturally and regionally close to each other and better relations can be established,” he stressed.
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