A senior Iranian government official has claimed Tehran has already successfully negotiated more than $2 billion-worth of trade deals with European companies, following last week's deal over its nuclear program.
"We are recently witnessing the return of European investors to the country. Some of these negotiations have concluded, and we have approved and granted them the foreign investment licences and protections," Deputy Minister Mohammed Khazaei told a conference promoting EU-Iran trade, according to Reuters.
"Even in the past couple of weeks we have approved more than $2 billion of projects in Iran by European companies," he said.
Khazaei did not provide further details, but it is no secret that western companies have been eager to tap into a new, previously out-of-bounds market in Iran, having already sent out feelers months before the signing of the deal last Tuesday.
Critics of the deal have warned that aside from the issue of Iran's illegal nuclear program itself, lifting economic sanctions on Iran without requiring it to end its sponsorship of terrorism - as the deal does - will result in a hundreds of millions of dollars being funneled by Tehran to terrorist groups throughout the Middle East.
Senior US officials have admitted there is no way they can stop Iran increasing its support for terrorism as a result of the lifting of sanctions.