Iran will be sending its “biggest” trade delegation within a month to Greece to discuss reviving business relations, the head of the Iran-Greece joint chamber of commerce says.
Annual transactions between Athens and Tehran stood at $1.8 billion before intensified Western sanctions reduced them to a trickle, put around $24 million at present by the chamber’s secretary general Majid Movafeq-Qadiri on Friday.
In their visit, the Iranian delegation of traders and business owners will tour major Greek companies, including two pharmaceutical manufacturing centers.
Movafeq-Qadiri said consultations were underway to open Iranian banks in Athens as the two countries plan to raise bilateral trade to $3 billion over the next four years.
Greece was an importer of the Iranian oil before Western sanctions on Tehran brought the sales to a halt in 2012.
In 2011, Greece relied on Iran for more than half of its oil imports during some months after international traders and oil majors halted supplies and banks refused to provide financing for fear that Athens would default on its debt.
Athens has an outstanding debt owed to Tehran from oil purchases, according to Iranian officials who have not divulged the figures.
Greece’s largest carrier, Aegean Airlines, launched service between Athens and Tehran last month, operating three weekly flights with Airbus A320 aircraft.
Earlier this week, Iran’s Civil Aviation Organization (CAO) ordered the airline to cancel planned flights between Tehran and Tel Aviv after media reports that the Aegean had established an indirect route between the two cities.