Iran, Qatar trade volume expected to reach $3bn by 2025

ByNews Desk- The Cradle

The boost in volume of trade between Doha and Tehran includes re-exports, joint investments, transit, production, and imports

Tasnim News Agency reported on 3 April that the trajectory of trade volume between Iran and Qatar is expected to reach $3 billion by 2025.

The number includes re-exports, joint investments, transit, production, and imports.

Director General of the West Asia Office of the Trade Promotion Organization of Iran (TPOI) Farzad Piltan says that, due to the revival of trade relations between Tehran and Doha in recent months, there will be an upward trend of relations moving forward.

Piltan reiterated that despite maritime transport restrictions between the two regional countries, in 2022, senior Qatari and Iranian officials met for talks to discuss avenues to boost economic and trade relations. The two countries signed 14 agreements last year intended to strengthen ties in various educational and financial sectors, including tourism.

The director noted that both nations had their trade centers inaugurated in Doha last year, which would help Iranian-based companies enter Qatar’s market.

Both Iran and Qatar are owners of the world’s largest gas field – the South Pars/North Dome Gas-Condensate field – which plays a significant role in Iran-Qatar relations.

Despite recent cooperative measures, Doha has struggled to maintain a positive relationship with Iran alongside adopting the policies set by the GCC council.

Qatar also participated in funding anti-government militias in Syria, such as former Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, now known as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), causing friction between the two over the past decade.

Not only is trade expected to increase between the two nations, but Doha is currently relaying messages between Tehran and other members of the 2015 nuclear deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in a bid to resume the stalled talks.

Iran and the remaining parties to the JCPOA – Russia, China, France, Britain, and Germany held several rounds of negotiations in Vienna since April 2021 to restore the agreement, which former US President Donald Trump abandoned in May 2018 to exert “maximum pressure” on Tehran; however, talks came to a halt in 2022.

In September 2022, Qatar also repatriated Iranian citizens to serve their sentences in prison back in Tehran, handing over 19 prisoners convicted by the Qatari judiciary on charges of drug trafficking.

The strengthening of bilateral ties between the two also materialized in Qatar’s vocal support for reviving the JCPOA.