Iranian President Hassan Rouhani met up with French President François Hollande during his visit to Paris and began closing deals between the two nations on Thursday. Rouhani arrived from Italy where he managed to seal deals amounting to almost $18.8 billion. When he set foot in Paris, he met with leading French businessmen.
One of those is oil company Total that agreed purchase crude oil from Iran, according to Agence France-Presse. Airbus Industrie also had an agreement with Iran Air and allowed it to acquire 118 additional aircraft. Signed by Iran Air CEO Farhad Parvaresh, the deal included 73 widebody and 45 single-aisle airliners, according to Business Insider.
There were other deals involving the auto industry, health, agriculture, and construction were signed during the visit in a total of 20 agreements.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with French counterpart President Hollande pic.twitter.com/KeRRinTZgq
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Rouhani delivered a speech at the Institut Français des Relations Internationales and expressed the toll their country has taken in the recent years. "Our nation has shouldered such a heavy weight through all these years, accepting 3 million migrants without complaining," Rouhani said, according to the Quadrangle Online. "200,000 have swarmed (our borders) what do we do now?"
After their lunch meeting at the Élysée Palace, Hollande held a press conference. "It's a new chapter of our relationship," Hollande said, according to the Associated Press. "I want that relationship to be useful, useful to both countries, useful to the (Middle East) region affected by wars, crises and tragedies."
Hollande also noted the ongoing conflict in Syria where Iran is also involved.
"We must fight terrorism," he said. "We must help the Syrian people so that the Syrian people can build a sustainable future for the country."
