PHOTO: Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi with the Supreme Leader on Tuesday
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Looking for billion-dollar trade and investment deals, Iran hosted Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi on Tuesday.
Renzi was welcomed by President Rouhani and met the Supreme Leader. The Prime Minister was accompanied by an entourage of 250 officials, economists, and businessmen.
The visit is a follow-up to Rouhani’s trip to Italy in late January, days after the announcement of implementation of a July 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the 5+1 Powers. The two countries signed contracts worth up to $18.4 billion, in sectors such as health, transportation, agriculture, and energy.
See Iran Daily, Jan 26: Tehran and Italy Sign Contracts Worth $18.4 Billion
However, Iran’s economic plans — including further contracts with France and discussions with Germany — have been unsettled by continuing US sanctions and a dispute over Tehran’s ballistic missile testing. The Supreme Leader has warned Rouhani that responsibility for the “Resistance Economy” will be taken from the Government as the Islamic Republic seeks self-sufficiency.
In an immediate result, Italian financing agencies said they will provide more than $9 billion in credit lines and guarantees for Iranian exports.
The Cassa Depositi e Prestiti, Italy’s state financing agency will issue €4 billion ($4.53 billion) in credit lines to Iranian public entities for infrastructure projects such as railways and motorways. Italian companies such as Ferrovie dello Stato are expected to participate in the construction.
Sace, Italy’s export credit agency, will support the projects with € 4 billion in guarantees and an additional €800 million ($906 million) in funding for Italian firms doing business in Iran.
Khamenei Chides Europe Over Lack of Results
In his meeting with Renzi, Ayatollah Khamenei urged Italy to distance itself from the US, chiding other European countries for not standing up to American pressure:
Some European governments and companies have been visiting Iran and are in talks, but the product of these negotiations has not yet been tangible.
Some people shift the blame for this issue onto the Americans, which seems to be an acceptable assessment given their track record and behavior. Even now they (the Americans) are not fulfilling their obligations throughout the nuclear talks as they should. Their remarks and actions are intimidating other parties into not cooperating with Iran.
Khamenei said the Islamic Republic views Italy in a “positive and optimistic light”, unlike the view of “certain European countries” with their subservience to the US.
The Supreme Leader also propped up Iran’s intervention in crises such as the Syrian civil war with the warning,
“A number of European countries used to support certain violent terrorist groups for some time and today the dangerous and overarching wave of terrorism has reached Europe too.”
Renzi and Rouhani subsequently signed six documents of cooperation, as meetings were held with Italian ministers, including the Foreign Minister and Ministers of Transport, Economic Development, Agriculture, and Food and Forestry.
Rouhani said:
although banking sanctions have been removed and banking cooperation has started, we need to undertake more endeavor to remove the psychological atmosphere left behind from the sanctions era. Before sanctions, Italy was one of Iran’s major trade partners in the European Union and it can reclaim this position today.
Head of Ground Forces: Slain Special Forces in Syria “Killed 200 Terrorists”
Amid Iran’s defeat by rebels and the jihadist faction Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria, the head of the Army’s ground forces has maintained that four slain officers killed 200 “terrorists”.
The three Special Forces members — a Colonel and two 2nd Lieutenants — and a captain in Mechanized Infantry died on the front south of Aleppo city, as Iranian-led attacks failed to move the rebels and Nusra.
General Ahmad Reza Pourdastan said at a funeral for one of the men on Tuesday:
In an operation against several thousand terrorists with the al-Nusra Front and [other] Takfiris carrying out a sweeping attack south of Aleppo, these soldiers staged devoted and decent courage and bravery, which resulted in the martyrdom of four of them.
Prior to their martyrdom, they managed to destroy a number of tanks and personnel carriers belonging to al-Nusra and kill 200 of the terrorists, documents attesting to which are at hand.
Pourdastan did not refer to subsequent Iranian deaths in another failed assault on Tuesday morning on the town of al-Eis.
Pro-rebel outlets said about 100 Iranian forces and Iranian-led foreign militia were killed in the attack, many cut down on a hilltop held by Nusra.
See Syria Daily: Rebels-Nusra Defeat Iranian-Led Force on South Aleppo Front
Fars News, the outlet of the Revolutionary Guards — which said wrongly on Monday that al-Eis had been recaptured by pro-Assad forces — maintains this morning:
The Syrian Army and its popular allies made significant advances near the terrorist groups’ only supply route from Damascus province to Southern Aleppo.
“The Syrian Army’s 154th Brigade of the 4th Mechanized Division, the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Iraqi Harakat al-Nujaba have launched joint operations against al-Nusra Front, Harakat Ahrar Al-Sham, Ajnad Al-Sham, and the Free Syrian Army in the surroundings of Jabal al-Eis, whose recapture will enable the government forces to gain fire control over the Aleppo-Damascus Highway (M-5), which is used by the rebel forces to reinforce their fighters in Southern Aleppo,” battlefield sources said.