France Eyes Four Deals From Iran Visit Including Airbus, Peugeot

As Iran’s president travels this week to Rome and Paris in a historic visit to mend economic ties with the countries, an unexpected scandal is playing out.

Disclosure that the French asked for such a review – even if it is ultimately unsuccessful – could complicate Rouhani’s low-key visit. Plywood panels cover naked statues inside the Campidoglio, Capitol Hill, during a meeting between Italian Premier Matteo Renzi and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in Rome. Italian protocol officials must now know how da Volterra felt.

Hours after the jailed leader of an armed anti-government group urged remaining militants to abandon the OR wildlife refuge they have occupied for more than three weeks, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said they arrested three more…

“We (everyone) can lower our pretensions”, as each side did in the nuclear talks, he said.

One woman suspended herself from a bridge near the Eiffel Tower, with a banner reading: “Welcome Rouhani, executioner of freedom”.

Iranian opposition group, the People’s Mujahedeen of Iran, with headquarters outside Paris, held a demonstration, and 61 lawmakers signed an open letter to Hollande, condemning Iran’s human rights record, with executions on the rise, and what it called its “strategy of chaos” in the Middle East. The officials, who were briefed on the issue, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly.

Hassan Rouhani, who was supposed to visit France in November but postponed his arrival because of terrorist attacks that killed 130 in Paris that month, landed in the French capital on January 27.

A spokesman in Renzi’s office said he had no information about whether Iran had asked for the statues to be covered. Iran said those programs were peaceful but critics feared it wanted to build nuclear weapons. He spoke to reporters at the Colosseum, where he gave Rouhani a guided tour before the Iranian delegation left for France. “Iran can count on France”.

Although this is the first Iranian President visit in Europe since the year of 1999, being focused on trade agreements between Iran and France, the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was greeted by a public hanging in Paris.

Four business arrangements were flagged by France’s main industry body Medef, including a joint venture between PSA Peugeot Citroen and Iran Khodro, and plans for Iran to buy over 100 Airbus passenger planes to update its ageing fleet.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is being formally welcomed to France at the gold-domed Invalides monument where Napoleon is buried.

The French government declined to comment on the news, and European Union officials would not confirm the French request.

Rouhani is also meeting Thursday with the chief of UNESCO, the Paris-based U.N. cultural body, and speaking to high-level French executives whose companies are interested in resuming trade with his long-isolated nation of 80 million people.

Thursday evening will see Rouhani and Hollande attend a special ceremony celebrating renewed friendship between the two countries.

The deal makes Peugeot the first Western vehicle maker to announce a return to Iran since sanctions were lifted against the country after it signed a deal to limit its nuclear programme.