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Update: EU to open office in Iran to promote ties

Xinhua, April 16, 2016 Adjust font size:

Iran and the European Union (EU) agreed here on Saturday to promote ties by opening an EU office in Tehran in the future, the state IRIB TV reported.

The consultations were made in Tehran for future cooperation of Iran and the EU in a number of areas ranging from economy, environment to regional issues, migration and human rights.

The announcement was made after the meeting of the visiting EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini and Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday.

"We believe that the cooperation between Iran and the EU could help the development of the country and promote peace in the region," Zarif said in a joint press conference with Mogherini.

He said that the mutual political and economic interests are tied to the nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, adding that the two sides will boost cooperation to remove the remaining obstacles on the way of its full implementation.

Zarif urged the United States to eliminate what he called the barriers to the banking and financial cooperation of western banks with Iran.

Mogherini said the EU would encourage European banks for greater engagement with Iran's economy.

"We are doing all what we can to reassure our financial and banking system about Europe's interest in developing economic ties with the Islamic republic," she said.

On Friday, Iran's central bank chief Valiollah Seif said in Washington that Iran must benefit from the nuclear deal reached last year, and the disinclination of world's major financial institutions to work with Iran might eventually endanger the agreement.

Iran blames the United States for imposing fresh unilateral sanctions against Tehran over its missile program, which have slackened global major banks' businesses in Iran.

Mogherini arrived in Tehran on Saturday heading a high-ranking EU commissioners in the fields of energy, maritime affairs and fisheries, transport, market and industry.

Mogherini is scheduled to meet Iran's Majlis Parliament (Majlis) Speaker Ali Larijani and Security Council head Ali Shamkhani. Endit