During the meeting, Mr. Stambuk said that he has been in Tehran for three months and during this short period he has found out that Iran has not been presented to the world as it deserves.

IRAN NEWS ECONOMIC DESK

He went on to say that cruel unilateral sanctions on Iran are unfortunately under way and it has created hurdles for cooperation with Iran, adding that regardless of the hurdles, Croatia is keen to continue its cooperation with Iran.

He blamed lack of information exchanges between both countries for recent unsatisfactory economic cooperation, adding that as long as this information-exchange does not improve and extend, the ground for developing economic cooperation will be hard.

Strambuk termed Croatia’s ports in the Baltic Sea as a gateway to European markets, adding that both countries should plan cooperation for the sanction-era and there are ways which will help this idea.

He noted he believed cooperation between small and medium-sized companies can be the best option for boosting cooperation.

He said that meeting with Mr. Shafei was aimed for finding ways for continuing the current economic cooperation and called for constant and strong ties between chambers of commerce of both countries even in provincial level, admitting that this is currently the missing link.

Shafei, for his part, pointed to the past cooperation between both countries in different fields and underlined existence of new capacities for joint cooperation between economic activists of both countries.

He also called for launching the joint commission of Iran and Croatia’s chambers of commerce which has been approved eight months ago but it still waits for action.

He also admitted that Iranian and Croatian traders have little information about economic opportunities of both countries and it is a major hurdle for boosting trade.

On the sanctions and its restrictions, he said Iran has been under sanctions for long time and it has learned ways to fight it.

Shafei added that although sanctions have created problems for the country and have increased the cost of international activities, it has never succeeded in stopping the country.

He said that the major task of chambers of commerce of both countries is to find ways for launching constant trade link.