South Korea in need of Iran’s energy reserves: Analyst

Press TV has interviewed Seyyed Mostafa Khoshcheshm, a political commentator, to discuss South Korean President Park Geun-hye’s historic visit to Iran.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: The South Korean president is accompanied by a 236-member delegation. That has been described as the largest traveling delegation ever for South Korea that of course alludes to the importance and the magnitude of this trip. Talk to us more about the significance of her visit.

Khoshcheshm: The trip is another episode in the chain of or in the serial of large foreign delegations visiting Tehran ever since the nuclear deal went into effect. Well it is important from different aspects. It is clear that there are some economic goals in here as well as security cooperation … between the two states.

As regards to economy, you know that Iran has an eighty million population market and it is the largest economy to join the global market ever since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s and it is located in a very strategic position linking the East and the West, the former Soviet Republics, the Central Asian Republics to the free waters through the Persian Gulf and also it has always been the most stable chunk of the Old Silk Road and it is a very stable and secure country in a region which is much in turmoil.

In the meantime, it has all types of mineral resources that you may like to invest in. It also has very rich energy resources. Iran has the fourth largest crude reserves in the world as well as the largest gas reserves. So it makes it a country with the largest combined energy reserves in the world and it has a very young educated, talented workforce. There are many startup companies in Iran that are readying to enter the global market and they want foreign partners and this is going to happen very much, I believe, through Europeans and also through South Koreans.

Also Iran enjoys many other potentials. Remember that they call Iran right now after decades of intensifying sanctions; Iran has the second largest economy in the Middle East even after all those years of sanctions and they call Iran the only very lucrative market in the world ever since the collapse of the former Soviet Union.

So this makes all foreign countries especially the developed and developing countries from Africa to Latin America, to Europe, to Asia, everywhere, to think of this market and to think of a major share in this beneficial market.

So they send their delegations. Normally their chief executive officers, their heads of state accompanied these delegations in order to show that they are very much serious.

In the meantime, remember that the developed economies and large economies of the world, they need to take back their share of Iran’s energy exports. Under the sanctions, Iran exported only 100,000 barrels per day of crude to South Korea. In the last few months these crude exports have grown four times.

So the Koreans are in need of energy reserves like many other large economies of the world and they want to secure and guarantee their share of this market and Iran and South Korea also in their leaders’ discussions, they are dealing with security cooperation. This is a very important aspect which might not receive due attention in media because West Asia is grappling with the threat of ISIL (Daesh) and other terrorist groups -- Ahrar al-Sham, Jabhat al-Nusra (Nusra Front) and others.

Some people, some states, nations in the East believe that they are not under the eminent threat of these terrorist groups while ISIL has already declared a war on major economies in East Asia. So these states need Iran’s cooperation because they know that Iran is in the forefront of combat against terrorism and it has achieved much success in this regard.

So they have to discuss security cooperation with Iran in the war on terrorism. Also Iran has very good ties with North Korea and it can play a mediating role in soothing tensions between North Korea and the South in order to reduce at least the turmoil and the tensions in the region. If any kind of tension happens to escalate in this Peninsula, the outcomes and the consequences will be dire for everyone in the region.

Press TV: Well on that note, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani earlier stated that the time now is right for investment in Iran. Now no matter how the United States has been trying to promote and expand its “Iranophobia”, we still see delegations from around the world pouring in to expand their ties with the Islamic Republic.

Khoshcheshm: Yes, as I said earlier Iran enjoys any kind of thing that you need as an investor in order to earn much money. Iran is one of the very few countries in the world that you have four climatic conditions. It is suitable, appropriate for all types of tourism. As a matter of fact, Iran stands among the top ten in the World Heritage Organization’s list of the most beautiful countries that is recommended to tourists to visit. Iran has the world’s best ski slopes and in the meantime it has some of the best beaches in the world. At the same season almost all throughout the year almost, you can do skiing and right away in a matter of one or two hours of flight you can go to the beach and this is impossible for many countries and for many people that would like to do sightseeing.

So you can see that Iran has the potential in order to develop into one of the largest tourism-based economies in the world and this is just tourism. With regard to technology, Iran is a pioneering state in stem cell technology and even in cloning and in many other aspects in nuclear technology Iran is now finding customers from the US to Russia to sell its heavy water and also in other fields in aerospace technology Iran is among at least the club of the states that have moved on in this area and there are not many other world states that can do so especially in the Muslim world.

And remember the South Korean president is the first non-Muslim female leader that is visiting Iran and she was given a wreath of flowers by a small girl. That was a symbolic move, a cultural move actually in order to show that Iran is also keen on developing cultural ties with South Korea given the fact that they are both Asian states and remember that Iran was the model of South Korea. Thirty years ago, Tehran was the model after a visit by a delegation of senior Korean officials, they said that they wanted to develop their country and their economy on this model, on the model of Iran. So they can share a lot.

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