Car-making deals, protests greet Iranian president in Paris

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (right) inspects an honor guard during a welcome ceremony yesterday at the Invalides in Paris. The trip is an effort to usher in a new era after the landmark accord signed in November

France welcomed Iranian President Hassan Rouhani yesterday with a long-term car-making agreement and pledges to boost trade now that a diplomatic deal is easing nuclear tensions.
Yet clouds hung over the historic outreach trip. France has asked its European Union partners to consider new sanctions on Iran for its recent ballistic missile tests, officials have told The Associated Press. That highlights continued suspicions between Iran and the West despite the recent agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program that prompted the lifting of earlier sanctions.
Rouhani arrived in Paris earlier this week from Rome, where billions of euros’ worth of trade deals were reached, and was formally greeted yesterday morning at the gold-domed Invalides monument that houses Napoleon’s tomb.
French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the countries should forget past rancor. “France is available for Iran,” he said. “Iran can count on France.”
Rouhani’s visit was also met with protests, notably over executions in Iran. A nearly naked woman hung from a fake noose off a Paris bridge yesterday next to a huge banner reading: “Welcome Rouhani, Executioner of Freedom.”
But the thrust of the trip was about improving economic and diplomatic relations after years of isolation for his country of 80 million people.
Rouhani said his country is “favorable terrain” for resumed trade between East and West, as he and Valls pledged to turn the page on past tensions.
Rouhani, speaking to French executives, urged efforts to unblock financing for resumed trade now that sanctions over Iran’s nuclear program have been lifted.
Sanctions were lifted on Tehran on January 16 in exchange for U.N. certification that Iran had scaled back its nuclear programs. Iran maintained those programs were peaceful but critics feared it wanted to build nuclear weapons. But Iran’s latest ballistic missile tests prompted new U.S. sanctions.
While France has asked EU partners about possible new sanctions over those tests, too, the French government is also hoping to draw in Iran’s help in peacemaking in its region, notably in Syria and Yemen, and easing tensions with regional rival Saudi Arabia.
Rouhani said the protracted, complex — but ultimately successful — nuclear negotiations could serve as an example for solving multiple crises in the Middle East.
Rouhani, in a speech to French think tank IFRI, said that for such diplomacy to work, both sides must “lower our pretensions.”
Speaking through a translator, he said: “Each side must feel it is a win-­win agreement.” MDT/AP