The Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, is embarking on a major European visit, the first such trip in more than a decade, in order to reintroduce Iran into a continent that was the country’s largest trading partner before sanctions.
Bolstered by the landmark Iranian nuclear agreement, the moderate cleric is due in Rome on Saturday and Paris next week on consecutive official visits he hopes will revive Iran’s global image and rebuild economic ties. The trip comes a few months after Tehran agreed to roll back its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of sanctions, including an end to the EU embargo on imports of Iranian oil.
It will be Rouhani’s first official visit to Europe and also the first to the continent by an Iranian head of government since 1999 when the former reformist president, Mohammad Khatami, made similar trips to Paris and Rome. Iran-EU ties reached a nadir under the ex-president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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