Al-Monitor | Arash Karami: Two years after it agreed to reduce its nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, Iran has signed its first energy deal. France’s Total SA and the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) agreed to a $5 billion deal to develop Phase 11 of Iran’s South Pars offshore gas field, one of the largest in the world.

ran’s Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh hailed the deal, attributing it to both the nuclear deal and the presidential election that gave President Hassan Rouhani a second term. Zanganeh also said July 3 that Iran would not be opposed to signing energy deals with the United States; however, it is the Americans themselves who do not want to.

Mohammad Bagher Nobakht, spokesperson for the Rouhani administration, also credited the nuclear deal and the election with the signing of the contract, noting that the deal was struck despite “America’s attempts to create an anti-Iran environment.”

Reformist media outlets that have supported the moderate Rouhani administration and its policies were jubilant over the news. Shargh Daily's front-page headline called the deal the “breaking of the petroleum dam.” Before Iran’s nuclear deal, even the country’s oil was hard to move. Iran had difficulty finding customers and was forced to barter due to banking sanctions.
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