The prospects for the lifting of sanctions against Iran in light of the Thursday success of the country to reach mutual understanding over solutions toward a final nuclear deal had already triggered speculations that that world businesses will soon prepare for a much-awaited gold rush to Tehran. 

Iranian merchants now believe that the Europeans could specifically be the real winners on this front.  “The economies of [most] European countries have not been in good shape over the past few years,” said Yahya Al-e Es’haq, the president of Tehran Chamber of Commerce. “Those problems still continue but a lot of them can be resolved through investing in Iranian businesses”.

Al-e Es’haq further emphasized that the Iranian markets as well as those in the region that are in the hands of Iranian industries are valuable to the Europeans.

“Iran’s economy is not limited only to a domestic market of 78 million consumers,” he said. Rather, the veteran merchant said, the Iranian economy has a powerful dominance over several regional markets that have a collective population of consumers of 350 million.

“This is a key privilege of the Iranian economy and there are many countries that are interested in the idea of producing their products in Iran and presenting them to the regional markets”.

Over a week of talks between top diplomats of Iran and the P5+1 in the Swiss city of Lausanne culminated in a joint statement in which the sides said they had reached understanding over solutions to move ahead toward drafting a comprehensive nuclear agreement before 30 June.  A key point of Lausanne statement was a promise to lift a series of economic sanctions on Iran approved by the Security Council.

Only a day after the developments in Lausanne, signs emerged in western media that companies the world would soon seen an influx of companies to Iran whose market had been shut down to global businesses as the result of years of US-engineered sanctions.

The Guardian quoted analysts and industrialists as saying that the most eager to set foot in Iran are oil and gas companies followed by auto majors and other enterprises.

The return of oil and gas companies to Iran could mean that a country which has long been a heavyweight in global oil markets would soon increase supplies thus triggering fears that prices could plunge further in an already saturated market.

The prices of oil have plunged by some 60 percent from the rates in June 2014. Many believe that several factors are to blame the most important of which are excessive supplies caused by production from US shale oil projects as well as sluggish market demand.

By Press TV