Iranian President tours Europe to sign big trade deals

ROME — Iranian President Hassan Rouhani launched a European visit this week to return his country to the international community and sign lucrative business deals now that international sanctions on Iran have been lifted.

Rouhani's first stop is Italy, where he met with Pope Francis and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, and signed trade deals worth at least $18 billion. It is the first visit between a pope and an Iranian leader in 16 years.

Rouhani was elected in 2013 on a promise to end the country’s international isolation and improve an economy crippled by sanctions. Toward that end, he championed a landmark deal last July with the United States and five other world powers to curb Iran's nuclear program in return for an end to sanctions. Many of them were lifted Jan. 16.

Among the deals struck in Rome with oil-rich Iran are agreements for oil exploration, infrastructure development, energy and automobiles. On Wednesday, Rouhani will fly to Paris, where he is expected to sign a new round of commercial agreements, including one to buy more than 100 Airbus commercial airplanes.

While the commercial agreements are important for both Iran and Europe, analysts said improving diplomatic relations after decades of estrangement is more vital.

“This visit is not only about commerce, it’s about helping to strengthen ties between Iran and the international community,” Riccardo Alcaro of Italy’s Institute for International Affairs said in an interview. “It’s a signal that Rouhani’s moderate reforms are supported as he is still trying to sell them to certain (hard-line) elements back home.”

Luigi Petrillo, an Iran expert at Rome’s LUISS University, said Italy’s long history as a mostly neutral European player when it comes to relations with Muslim states is a factor in Rouhani's decision to start his European tour here.

“It’s not a coincidence that Rouhani chose to come to Italy first,” Petrillo told USA TODAY. “Now it is up to Italy to play its protagonist role well.”

In a nod toward the Iranian leader’s religious sensibilities, Italy agreed not to serve wine at a state dinner hosted by the prime minister Monday night, and to place makeshift boxes around classical nude marble statues at Rome’s Campidoglio museum for Rouhani’s visit to the site. Those moves attracted criticism in the Italian news media and among many Italians.

“I don’t see why we have to ignore our cultural values to allow for those of a foreign leader,” said Marco Penza, 30, a city bus driver.

Anna Maria De Costanzo, 41, a coffee bar waitress, agreed: “I’m sure if Renzi went to Iran he would have to play by their rules while there.”

France declined to pull wine from the menu in Paris, so there will be no formal state dinner during Rouhani’s two-day visit to that country.

Renzi said Rouhani’s visit to Rome was “the start of a long road” built on mutual respect. The prime minister said he hoped the visit would help lay the groundwork for an Iran-based agreement for ending Syria's nearly 5-year-old civil war.

In a discussion with Italy’s Foreign Affairs Minister Paolo Gentiloni, Rouhani addressed the civil war and the need for stability in the Middle East, the Italian government said. But it did not release details of the discussion.

The 40-minute meeting between Francis and Rouhani was the first between an Iranian head of state and a pontiff since Mohammad Khatami visited Pope John Paul II in 1999.

After the session, Rouhani told the pope, “I ask you to pray for me,” and called the visit "a real pleasure,” the Associated Press reported.

Francis gave the Iranian leader a medal depicting St. Martin helping a poor man, which he called “a sign of unsolicited brotherhood.” Rouhani gave the pope a red-toned rug made in the Iranian holy city of Qhom, the AP said..

After the visit, the Vatican said in a statement that the two discussed  "the important role that Iran is called upon to fulfill ... to promote suitable political solutions to the problems afflicting the Middle East, to counter the spread of terrorism and arms trafficking."

The Vatican statement said they also "highlighted the importance of inter-religious dialogue and the responsibility of religious communities in promoting reconciliation, tolerance and peace."