Nuke deal to contribute to development of Iran- Azerbaijan ties

The signing of an agreement between Iran and the world powers will contribute to the development of Iran's cooperation with the countries of the region, including Azerbaijan, according to a statement made by Ali Masimli, a member of the Azerbaijani Parliament's Economic Policy Committee, on July 15.

"The lifting of sanctions will firstly affect the development of commercial relations between Azerbaijan and Iran, in particular in the border regions. Also, the operations of Azerbaijani companies will be expanded in Iran in case of openness of the Iranian economy," he told Trend.

Masimov believes that the signing of the agreement between the world powers and Iran is of great importance for the whole world in geopolitical and economic terms.

"It should be noted that the entry of Iran to the world market will increase the amount of oil in the market by several million tons, which may lead to adjustment in the strategy of OPEC. But I believe that Iran will not immediately export a large amount of oil to the world market. In the future, a gradual increase in the volume of Iranian oil can, of course, affect the price. And finally, if the parties [Iran and the West] comply with the terms of the agreement, the relevance of transportation of Iranian gas to Europe will increase. This, in turn, will help Europe to not depend on a single source of gas, and will allow for accelerating the diversification of gas supplies to Europe," the MP added.

The world powers and Iran inked a historic deal on Tehran’s nuclear energy program on July 14.

Under the deal, sanctions imposed by the U.S., EU, and UN would be lifted in return for Iran agreeing to long-term curbs on a nuclear program that the West has suspected was aimed at creating a nuclear bomb.

The talks between the two sides started over 10 years ago. After the adoption of an interim joint action plan in Geneva in November 2013, discussions between Iran and P5+1 have been held in Vienna, Montreux, Lausanne, and Geneva since February 2014. The final negotiation round had lasted in Austria’s capital for over 18 days.

Earlier, Iranian ambassador to Azerbaijan Mohsen Pak Ayeen told journalists that his country intends to expand cooperation with Azerbaijan in the trade and energy sectors.

He noted that in recent years, relations between Iran and Azerbaijan have been improving rapidly and the lifting of sanctions will allow for developing these relations even further.

"The evidence of the development of our relations is the meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission on economic policy held last year in Baku. I want to note that the next meeting of the intergovernmental commission will be held in Tehran by the end of the year," the diplomat noted.

Azerbaijan and Iran have had diplomatic relations since 1918. Iran recognized Azerbaijan's independence in 1991 and diplomatic relations between the two countries were reestablished in 1992.

Currently, the two countries are focused on expanding their economic ties in various fields, including industry, agriculture, energy, alternative energy, and transportation.

Tehran has in recent years focused on expanding ties with neighboring countries, including Azerbaijan, which enjoys religious, historical, and cultural commonalities with Iran.

Azerbaijan was the 12th leading importer of Iranian non-oil goods in the previous Iranian calendar year, which ended on March 20, 2015, according to the Iranian Customs Administration.