British Foreign Secretary William Hague: Britain willing to improve its relations with Iran on a step-by-step basis; Indian Ambassador to Iran: India continues to trade with Iran despite the economic sanctions
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  • (JULY 8-14)

    According to reports, British Foreign Secretary William Hague has said that London is ready to improve its relations with Tehran on a step-by-step basis. He stated, “we will also make every effort to persuade Iran to negotiate an end to the crisis over its nuclear program. We look to a new government in Iran to give a comprehensive response to the E3+3’s proposal for a confidence building measure and to cooperate fully with the International Atomic Energy Agency…. but no one should doubt our resolve to prevent nuclear proliferation.” Iran has been involved regularly in talks with the United States, Britain, France, Russia, China, and Germany, which are known as the P5+1 group or the E3+3, to help resolve the dispute over its nuclear programme, which Iran says is entirely peaceful but the West suspects may be geared to developing nuclear weapons. 1

    In another development, according to reports, Indian Ambassador to Iran Shri D.P. Srivastava has said that India will keep its trade ties with Iran despite the international economic sanctions against Iran. His remarks came during a meeting with some officials from Iran’s ministry of labour and social affairs in Tehran. In March 2013, Consul General of Iran in Hyderabad, Hassan Nourian had stated that bilateral trade between India and Iran is poised to cross $25 billion within four years. “The Indo-Iran trade cooperation amounts to $15 billion. Both the governments of Iran and India have come to a conclusion that in the next four years they want to take it to $25 billion,” Nourian had said. About 45 percent of exports from Iran are paid in Indian rupees, and the Indian Ministry of Commerce has expressed desire to encourage trade to use the rupee surplus accumulated through oil exports from Iran to India. 2

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