SA to resume relations with Iran

Wednesday, September 9, 2015

Pretoria - South Africa is looking forward to resume normal bilateral economic and trade relations with Iran once the sanctions have been lifted.

In July, Iran and six world powers - China, the United States, France, Britain, Russia and Germany - reached a deal stipulating to lift a 13-year sanctions and embargo on Tehran, in exchange for limiting its nuclear program.

The international community has since welcomed the agreement which was the fruit of 21 months of negotiation.

“The approach of South Africa is that we welcome the progress made in the P5 plus 1 - because it will afford us an opportunity for us to resume our bilateral engagements including in oil,” International Relations and Cooperation Deputy Minister Nomaindiya Mfeketo said on Wednesday.

Iran is the largest supplier of crude oil, however, South Africa was obliged to halt its imports of Iranian oil as of June 2012 as a result of sanctions.

Asked when South Africa will resume oil imports from Iran, Deputy Minister Mfeketo said they are currently in negotiations.

“We are negotiating and looking when to resume fully …for South Africa if there is a process of doing that lawfully tomorrow we will do it. But it all depends on how quick those negotiations between the different departments happen so that we can sign on the dotted line.”

South Africa has always spoken out against the language of threats and coercion, including the unilateral sanctions that have been unfairly and unjustly imposed to single out Iran as they reiterated support for Iran’s inalienable right to use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes.

Pretoria’s approach, according to Deputy Minister Mfeketo, is to get back to the level of trade that the two countries enjoyed before the sanctions, sooner rather than later.

“But we want to do that lawfully. We know that there are areas that have been cleared with the conclusion of the negotiations and others that are not.”

Under the road-map, Iran will address the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA's) concern over the so-called possible military dimensions of its nuclear programme, including the resolution of the Parchin issue, a military site where the IAEA suspects Iran might have carried out explosive tests relevant to a nuclear weapon plan.

The two sides have put a deadline of the end of 2015 to resolve outstanding issues. -SAnews.gov.za